My Newest Desktop machine

[microcarve]

Some pictures of how I made my chain. I wanted to try a mold to
make colored parts. The urethane is good for hard use....it won't
break or crack easily.

Easy to just super glue the parts together before sanding them

The brass pins are "ejector pins" of sorts. Meaning the mold
can be made with no "draft" to it...as they're relatively thin
parts. Causing them to fit together very easily for the gluing.

I made the mold in a hurry. I didn't expect it to work as well as it did,
so you can see a crack in it that was caused before I figured out to
use the brass pins ---to easily get the parts out of the mold.

It's still more sensible to just buy the chain.....but I did want to give
it a shot at making some of my own.



John

[.xXACEXx.]

well well well microcarve, you have indeed sparked alot of imaginations,as to the jewelry business i never had a single clue how any one could use a cnc machine to make a mold for jewelry

ive been looking at home built cnc machines for a few years now..(about 5 i think) and have yet to build anything..i have been machining for ~14 years ,every thing from dies for a major powdermetal casting factory for dozers, to assembly line parts for a major battery company ,but i still get in awe of what can be dome at home by someone with a little imagination ,..

and i also like how you are showing how things are done,in regards to building the machines and what to expect from them,when i saw the pictures of the router with the little "blocky" looking things..i was wondering "whats that" then ya show a good picture of energy chain ,molds.. wow!!

keep up the good work! but dont let out all your secrets in one day, well need something to check back in on tomorrow after all

[microcarve]

Thanks .xXACEXx.



I got determined to make that chain...at all costs.....

I knew I didn't want acrylic....PVC....MDF....
(I'd break them and that'd ruin my day after so much work)

I tired directly cutting them, that was going to take practically
forever. And, that urethane is a bit on the expensive side....

Made an MDF mold to cut them directly...again.
Realized the 1/4" bit was still wasting a $$$ of material...

...But ended up using the "perfect" ones I cut for the test
mold.

I was a real journey that even Jules Verne would have been
pleased to write about, but I finally ended up with what I was
after.

It sure ain't cost effective by any means, though.

I'll definitely search ebay next time.....


John

[tulsaturbo]

Originally Posted by Mongkol John, Have you ever engrave on the stone? I found this machine on youtube. It can engrave the image which you need on the stone. I think it's challenging for you. YouTube- ‪CNC G-10 engraves photos into stone‬‎ Here's the original website. http://www.acmetek.biz/g10.html Mongkol

Has anyone tried to mimic engraving in stone using the microcarve software to get the effect like the job performed by the G-10?

I have been trying but without any success at all...

[dertsap]

I've never cut stone but I think that in order to get a good effect on stone you would probably need to set your tool depth really shallow and set your z zero a couple of thou above your work , this way you'll be able to preserve the shine of the ground surface to keep that dark color (assuming it is a ground surface) .

[dertsap]

holy smokes John Ive been gone for nearly a week with zero internet and I've had a heck of a lot to catch up on with your thread
that whole molding thing is cool , I've got a few projects planned for the near future where that material would work really nicely
if a guy had a strip that was 1/32 x 1/8 by 1" long then how tough is that material , the reason being that my son wants to make lego weapons ( swords guns shields etc ) , I've been promising that we'd come up with some molds

[microcarve]

Hi Curt,

Look on their website.....

http://www.alumilite.com/

for ideas & stuff. They say it's good for very thin pieces, but I've never
really made any quite that thin.....at 1/32".

(they say...and show, but I'm wary myself....)


FWIW...little quart-sized(?) kits of it can be found in lots of local
hobby stores for around $30 or so.

I have had tons of "flashing" scraps....the thin coating that cures around
the sides of a plastic mixing cup. It was very thin. It just pops right out of a
polyethylene cup allowing the cups to be reused many times....(but it must
be a polyethylene cup....Not styrene)

Anyway, that flashing scrap is sometimes razor sharp enough to slice skin.
Sometimes it's just thick enough to be rigid.....for toy castings, etc.

But to intentionally try to cast a part quite that thin, it'll work I think, but
I don't know how much I'd trust any durability of it.

But, you can't go wrong experimenting with it. Make some plastic bearings.
--Cheaper than most of those plastic bearing places....


John

[microcarve]

Cutting Stone pictures....

I'm sure I could get that to work. But....the machines I make aren't
really for doing that sort of work. It could work occasionally, but I'd
have to do some testing to figure the best approach to get to to
work repeatedly.

Once I get a little time to see what happens, I'll try a few experiments.
One thing is if I damage a machine here....no problem. I can fix it or replace
it easily. But I hesitate to tell anyone else to try it --until I find out the
hard way....

The software should work....but again, it needs testing out.


John

[microcarve]

Also...FWIW....cutting those sort of pictures in stone would be more
likely to work well with a special Z axis attachment.

The spinning diamond ball/tip needs to have the axis offset. If it's straight
up/down vertically, I can't imagine it doing the necessary grinding to give
good results. A few special parts are needed IMO....

John

[tulsaturbo]

Here are pics of the way I have my machine set up to play with the tiles. In the program, I believe I had it setup for .001" depth of cut with .125" tool tip. The tile was 4" square with the drawing reduced to 3.5". Router with .125 carbide ball tip was set at 45 degrees. Z height was set to zero with a piece of paper just above the tile where I could barely slide it out.

[dertsap]

your step over is set too big

[microcarve]

WoW!

So you're already pretty far along with it...

Have you tried making the stepover closer?

Is your picture repeatable and always look the same?

Can you see the detail well enough when you click on the
"Generate Toolpath" button?

Maybe consider a diamond bit?
(Is it possible the carbide is skipping along rather than grinding?)

It looks like it's close to working to me. Try a different picture
that should work easily.....like maybe a black circle on a pure
white background.

I think it wants to work....


John