Wires guide for my CNC router

Since I first posted about my wires guide modifications for my ShopBot PRT Alpha CNC router, many have commented and asked for more details pictures and specifications. A fellow Botter even came up with own modifications. First off, it started as a prototype and somewhat still is. Since I couldn't accommodate the factory default arch design wire guide from ShopBot, I had to quickly though of another way to route the motors and input signal wires and router power cord. I came up with this design because, at that time, I couldn't source cable carrier (wires guide) fast enough. Today, I know where I could find cable carrier but I discovered that the price tag would refrain me to buy 'em... maybe I simply prefer the simplicity of my design. Often, when I can't find something that I need, I start thinking about some way I could built it.



On the bellow pictures the router motor is removed for servicing (hint, hint; stay tunned for a Milwaukee 5625 motor bearing service procedure in the next few days). I've fitted a wires guide for the carriage to gantry only since I route the motors wires, power cord, compressed air and dust collector hoses differently from the gantry to their respective destinations. You may notice a small wires guide on the top of the Z axis; it's there to route ground and input signal wires nicely rather than have them hanging loose.



Even though it still a prototype (always under development) and it's not [good] looking like a factory made unit, it work really well. The shelf and the carriage mounting is made from wood (mostly plywood), the guide is made from 1/8" UHMW and the wires separators are made from hard wood. If I had to say sell the unit, I would make the shelf from steel, probably 16G thick, with a couple of bent a the right places. The carriage mounting would too be made with steel; a nice design in CAD would be in order to have this part laser cut (water jet or plasma cut would work too but laser is just more sexy and yet price competitive anyway around here). I would keep the wires guide made from 1/8" UHMW because it's affordable, easy to source, it's very flexible (up to a certain thickness) and you just can break that material but it still machine pretty well. Wires separators I'm not sure which way would be the cheapest yet retained the original concept which is to keep electrical noise sensitive wires (motors and input signal wires) separated from power cord and compressed air hose(s) and still allow those to slide as the wires guide flex when the carriage move. Maybe a bent steel piece or simply machined from thick plastic like the way I did but in hard wood.



I didn't have any problem (so far) routing the dust collector hose on the wires guide but I'm not sure it's best way. It is in my situation (low ceiling height) but generally, the straighter and the shorter the better. I'd prefer to have the dust collector hose hanging from higher above reaching right at the carriage.



I believe that the pictures I've provide should enable tinkerer to figure how things were done but I would be happy to answer specific questions. I suggest to ask anything through comments (link at the end of each post of this blog) rather than through email so it could be share with the whole planet community here. Here's the link to my Google Picasa wires guide project album.

I hope this will answer most of the questions and details requests I had before. Let me know (through comments bellow) if you come up with modifications of your own or have any nice ideas to share.

Point roundover bit; sign maker delight

Here's a batch of small letters (2 inches) I've done today. They're part of an complete sign kit I've been ask to do.



The special part about 'em is that they have a roundover edge made with a small diameter Point roundover bit. The point allow the bit to reach into tight corners which create a very nice looking letter. This kind of bit shape come in a few roundover radius (1/4-3/8-1/2" CED) which is unfortunate because I could use more possibilities (1/8" and larger than 1/2").


Magnate point roundover bit

Many of my sign maker customers really like the effect that bit shape make and the very affordable price I can make them compared to 3D carved letters. It's only a matter of profiling the edge at the proper depth and that's it.

Surfacing along axis, a ShopBot routine

This is about something I wanted to do for a moment already. I've been using this small program quite often and find it very useful. It first start from a fellow Botter who shared some code about a surfacing routine and from that point, I and another Botter join in and hacked the guy code. After using it for about two years, and making some minor modifications to the hacked code version. I decide it was time for a tidy and some improvements I've been thinking about for some time. Recently, someone asked about a such utility and this give me the final kick to hacked the code some more up to a vision I had myself about it.

Here's the file's code to study with the README following it and a diagram demonstrating the code's behavior and relation between it's different block. (here's the link to download the package)

The ShopBot part file.

surfacing_along_XorY_axis.sbp

'PACO - 2007
'-----------
'See 'surfacing_along_XorY_axis_README.txt' for details and instructions.
'-----------

IF &work_axis = x THEN GOTO WANNA_SKIP
IF &work_axis = y THEN GOTO WANNA_SKIP

START:
INPUT "Surfacing along X or Y" &work_axis
IF &work_axis = x THEN GOTO CONFIG
IF &work_axis = y THEN GOTO CONFIG
IF &work_axis <> x OR y THEN GOSUB MAKE_A_CHOICE

CONFIG:
INPUT "X distance?" &x_size
INPUT "Y distance?" &y_size
INPUT "Tool diameter?" &tool_diam
&tool_radius = &tool_diam / 2
INPUT "% Stepover?" &stepover
&stepover = &stepover / 100
&tool_stepover = &tool_diam * &stepover
INPUT "Stepdown? (Enter a positive value like 0.02 or 0.06)" &stepdown
&half_stepdown = &stepdown / 2
SKIP:
&start_x = %(1)
&start_y = %(2)

'Ready?
PAUSE
SO,1,1
SO,2,1
PAUSE 1
&depth = &stepdown
IF &work_axis = x THEN GOSUB X_AXIS
IF &work_axis = y THEN GOSUB Y_AXIS

X_AXIS:
BEGIN_X:
PRINT "Now at "; &depth; " of an inch deep."
J3,&start_x - &tool_radius,&start_y,0.03 - (&depth - &stepdown)
M3,&start_x + (2 * &tool_diam),&start_y,-&depth / 2
M3,&start_x - &tool_radius,&start_y,-&depth
LOOP_X:
MX, &start_x + &x_size + &tool_radius
&yvalue = %(2) + &tool_stepover
IF &yvalue > &y_size THEN GOTO FINISHED_X
MY,&yvalue
MX,&start_x - &tool_radius
&yvalue = %(2) + &tool_stepover
IF &yvalue > &y_size THEN GOTO FINISHED_X
MY,&yvalue
GOTO LOOP_X
FINISHED_X:
JZ,%(28)
INPUT "Another pass? Y to continue, H for an half pass or N to end" &cont
IF &cont = h THEN &stepdown = &half_stepdown
IF &cont = n THEN GOSUB THATS_IT
&depth = &depth + &stepdown
J2,&start_x,&start_y
GOTO BEGIN_X
RETURN

Y_AXIS:
BEGIN_Y:
PRINT "Now at "; &depth; " of an inch deep."
J3,&start_x,&start_y - &tool_radius,0.03 - (&depth - &stepdown)
M3,&start_x,&start_y + (2 * &tool_diam),-&depth / 2
M3,&start_x,&start_y - &tool_radius,-&depth
LOOP_Y:
MY, &start_y + &y_size + &tool_radius
&xvalue = %(1) + &tool_stepover
IF &xvalue > &x_size THEN GOTO FINISHED_Y
MX,&xvalue
MY,&start_y - &tool_radius
&xvalue = %(1) + &tool_stepover
IF &xvalue > &x_size THEN GOTO FINISHED_Y
MX,&xvalue
GOTO LOOP_Y
FINISHED_Y:
JZ,%(28)
INPUT "Another pass? Y to continue, H for an half pass or N to end" &cont
IF &cont = h THEN &stepdown = &half_stepdown
IF &cont = n THEN GOSUB THATS_IT
&depth = &depth + &stepdown
J2,&start_x,&start_y
GOTO BEGIN_Y
RETURN

MAKE_A_CHOICE:
'Enter either X or Y!
PAUSE
GOTO START

WANNA_SKIP:
INPUT "Skip settings? Y or N" &skip
IF &skip = y THEN GOTO SKIP
IF &skip <> y THEN GOTO START

THATS_IT:
SO,1,0
SO,2,0
JH
PRINT "You removed a total of "; &depth; " of an inch of material."
IF &depth > 0.5 THEN PRINT "I hope that there still something remaining?"
END

The README text file about it.

surfacing_along_XorY_axis_README.txt

PACO - 2007
-----------
David Buchsbaum (original idea) and Mike Richard (contributor) deserve credit on this project (2005). See the bellow URL for forum discussion...
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/29/7427.html?1113888158#POST23422
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/18228.html?1171076306#POST46411
I have personally benefit from other programming skill and I'm very happy to share this particular project with any body else completely freely... just give me, and the previously mentioned author and contributor, credit for the code. Thanks! This is, from all small SB coding I made, the one that I use the most aside Z zero and X&Y zeroing customizations. I believe you may find it handy too. Let me know!
-----------
The program is intend for surfacing material such as warped lumber, glue up board or anything that you need to be as flat as possible. It could be use for surfacing the spoilboard too; this actually prove to faster than with the pocketing strategy.
The program start by checking if a specifically related variable has one of the two relevant values (&working axis=x or y). If so, the user is offered to skip the settings configuration part and proceed on the surfacing from previously entered setting values. This is good if you just want repeat the process. The user still have the option to re-edit the settings. If the test variable doesn't contain a relevant value (&working axis=not x or y or even nothing), you have to go through the settings configurations part.
The settings configuration start by asking the user to choose either X or Y axis to work along with. The tool will go back and forth along the chosen axis. Next is the X size of the material to surface then the Y size. Cutter diameter is the fourth setting, stepover is the fifth and stepdown is the sixth. For the stepover, the user just need to enter a percentage value (of the cutter diameter) he want to use without any '%' character. Stepdown refer to depth of cut; the user enter the depth of cut per pass without the '-' sign. Passes (stepdown) are cumulative and displayed (PRINT on the 'Part file message screen').
Once all settings are configured, the user get a last prompt (Ready?) and then the tool proceed to surfacing. The tool will ramp in the cut both as gradually plunging (a first stroke of twice the tool diameter and half the stepdown) and start from outside the material size (see bellow for further details *5). It'll go back and forth along the chosen axis, overshooting the ends until it surface all the material area then raise to 'Safe Z' (VC value) and ask if the user want to perform another pass or an half pass (half the stepdown or depth of cut). This last option has prove valuable when you and to rough out the bulk first then make final pass with less material removal. At the point where the user chose to not do any further pass and answer N when prompt to, the tool will jog back the home (initial X and Y and VC Safe Z).
PLEASE, READ THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT POINTS AS THEY ARE CRITICAL TO GOOD OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM.
-----------
*1 - There's lines in the code that you may want to change depending on your tool configuration; line 31-32 and 101-102 are used to turn on and off devices (in my case it's the router and the dust collector).
*2 - The program assume that the tool bit is zeroed on top of the material (warped lumber: highest point).
*3 - The program assume the user will have zeroed X & Y axis at the lower left corner (center of the tool bit at the lower left bounding box working envelope).
*4 - The program assume the user have previously set the tool to correct RPM, feed speed, plunge speed and any other related configuration (ramping settings).
*5 - The program will overshoot the ends to avoid tool marking as it ramp down to a stop. Plan ahead that you need a working envelope of at least the longest measurement plus the tool bit diameter (the program overshoot the tool bit radius at each ends).
*6 - Don't be surprised to see the tool ramping in as it start a pass; some fly cutter can't be plunge in very deep.
-----------
04/2005 - Original idea came up from David Buchsbaum. I and Mike Richard hacked David's code to play with and challenge ourselves coding the ShopBot part file code.
07/2006 - Implemented the Y axis version.
12/2006 - Implemented a main file (custom cut) to choose one or the other axis version.
02/2007 - Major clean up and tidy of the code. Implementation of a few ideas: simplifications, half pass (half stepdown), overshoot the ends (to avoid tool marking), re-use of previous settings, display (print on the Part file message screen) of the depth of cut progression. To do: new stepover algorithm to avoid air cutting the final stroke or leaving a thin strip of not machined material. This can happen under certain tool diameter, stepover and material width settings combinations...
-----------

surfacing_along_XorY_axis diagram

Enjoy the utility. Let know of any bugs. I welcome feedback (good or bad). Let me know what you think.

Paco 8-)

Curved Crown molding

This is a project that been presented to me by a customer that came in with crown molding sample and a print out of is kitchen CAD design with the basic measurements. I took up the challenge and quote the project and I was in my way for something new!

Once the sample was scanned, I vectorized it and create the curve to extrude it on. The curved molding was modeled in nurbs based software MoI (January 2007 beta release) and toolpath in VETRIC's Cut 3D and V Carve PRO (profiling cutout). The molding has been machined on my ShopBot PRT Alpha.

Making the 3D model and program the toolpath wasn't much of the challenge as the 'How the #!*? I'm gonna machine that 3-3/4" thick part out of it's upper side?!'...



That what the machine look like once the rough toolpath was done! Guess what the surrounding floor was looking like...



Another view of the "chip load".



The customer was advised that I was going to "redraw" the molding profile from a scan so he prefer to have a straight section made for a perfect fit at the miter cut. The finish curved molding is 82" wide and about 12" tall from the front. I left both ends "as it" so the customer has final word on the miter cut. The profile itself is about 3-3/4" X 3-3/4" from it's normal view position.



The curved one took about 6 hours total (rough, finish and cut toolpath) to machine. I probably put 2 hours here and there for the sanding part as I wanted to provide this customer with a "almost-ready-to-install-pieces".
I end up cutting out the curved one with a band saw to remove most of the remaining and finish with a large flush trim bit and the belt sander. Even with a 2" cutting length of cut bit, I still had a 1-3/4" "anchor" to cut out...



Here you have proud Paco holding the finish part high, ready for delivery!

Stay tuned, more to come about "medium size" carving!