First Job On My Router - Cool Cross

[zeeway]

My wife and I first saw this cross design hanging from the rear view mirror of a taxi in Honduras a couple of years ago. We later bought a couple of the same design crosses when we saw them in a gift shop in Belize (same cruise).

I continue to be fascinated by the design, and at first cut out about ten of them on my bandsaw. I gave them away to friends and grandchildren – but that was quite a job. Then I said to myself, “Self, what a perfect job to prove out the new (self-made) CNC router.” I have no cad ability, so I decided I would program it directly in G code, trying to remember some skills I had a long time ago. Well, the tenth time was a charm – at least as far as I am concerned.

Here is the the CNC result made in .220 inch thick plywood...it measures about 4.5 inches wide by about 5.5 inches tall. I used double sided carpet tape to hold the plywood to my spoil board. The plywood was cheapo luan, so not the best material, but it was more to prove out the code. I think I will try it next in cherry or something like that.


The text file below is based on using a 1/8 inch end mill, 2 flute down spiral, at 10 ipm and 16000 rpm. I broke an endmill at 50 ipm, so I backed the feed rate way down. This file will cut down to a minus Z of .230 inches. I have decided that manual programming is not that much fun, so this may be my first and last manual G code file.

My CNC uses 380 oz in motors, Gecko 540, and Mach3 for reference. These make good gifts for friends – and everyone else, too. Feel free to use the file for non-commercial purposes. Hope you enjoy.

Angie

Jesus6.TXT

[ger21]

Hey, I'm going on a cruise to Honduras and Belize in Sept.

[austin.mn]

Nice job on that project. Boy, and programmed by hand. That must have taken some time. I think that the last time I wrote an actual program by hand I was in school ten years ago. Now a days though, I wouldn't trust myself to write something cuttable... I would likely make a lot of scrap and some broken bits.

[louieatienza]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing, these are going to make great gifts!

[zeeway]

Forgot to mention that last pass leaves tabs on both sides of the big "S" to help hold cross into place. So you need to cut through those to release cross and then trim the remainder of the tabs off.