CNC Produced Tooth Fairy Boxes
Posted: 25 May 2022, 22:18
Well, I had to get mangling sooner or later. So, here's my first bash at producing wooden stuff with the CNC Router wot I bilt!
This has been such a steep learning curve and the Cad/Cam software has been no exception. But, if I want to produce components for musical instruments, I have to start somewhere, and as I've been blessed with two beautiful granddaughters in the last couple of years, a pair of named tooth fairy boxes sounded like a simple start. Yeah, right!
There's drawing, there's terms like vectors, there's tool paths, there's tools, there's feed rates, spindle speeds; the list goes on.
The software I decided on was Vectric's Vcarve Desktop. I had tried Fusion 360, Onshape and something else, I forgot. VCarve's free trial edition I found more intuitive for my brain.
I drew a rectangle 65mm x 50mm, rounded the corners, created a profile toolpath that routed the outline down the boxes depth of 20mm. The created a pocket tool path that routed out the inside of the box to a depth of 15mm, following the shape of the outside at 5mm thick.
Then I drew a similar rectangle with rounded corners for the lid. Wrote one of the girls' names on it and create the tool paths to shape the outline and engrave the name. Then I 'turned it over' and created a tool path to rout out the lip of the lid to fit the inside of the box.
That was for one box. But I needed two. The a friend said she'd like two for her two grandsons. So Now I needed four! Well, the software accounts for that. It's a bit like creating a table in Word, with rows and columns, so I set up 1 row with four columns and placed four boxes in that array, and then four lids in another array.
This is what happened.
You can choose what font you want and you can choose to engrave just the outline of the letters or rout the letter.
Then I turned the stock over and started routing the lips.
Then I profiled the outlines.
I had ripped the stock into two pieces so that when the lids went on their respective box bodies, their grain would more or less match. The bodies' stock was in the background of the last few pictures, so that I knew which side to rout.
Spot the CUF's work.
I've got an air cooled spindle so I touch it from time to time to monitor its temperature. It was a little warm, so I asked the software to pause, and on resuming, that happened. I'm still learning and have got more stock waiting in the sidelines.
Time to profile the outline of the boxes.
And here is the result of the CNC work.
And here's two of the finished in food safe wax.
This has been such a steep learning curve and the Cad/Cam software has been no exception. But, if I want to produce components for musical instruments, I have to start somewhere, and as I've been blessed with two beautiful granddaughters in the last couple of years, a pair of named tooth fairy boxes sounded like a simple start. Yeah, right!
There's drawing, there's terms like vectors, there's tool paths, there's tools, there's feed rates, spindle speeds; the list goes on.
The software I decided on was Vectric's Vcarve Desktop. I had tried Fusion 360, Onshape and something else, I forgot. VCarve's free trial edition I found more intuitive for my brain.
I drew a rectangle 65mm x 50mm, rounded the corners, created a profile toolpath that routed the outline down the boxes depth of 20mm. The created a pocket tool path that routed out the inside of the box to a depth of 15mm, following the shape of the outside at 5mm thick.
Then I drew a similar rectangle with rounded corners for the lid. Wrote one of the girls' names on it and create the tool paths to shape the outline and engrave the name. Then I 'turned it over' and created a tool path to rout out the lip of the lid to fit the inside of the box.
That was for one box. But I needed two. The a friend said she'd like two for her two grandsons. So Now I needed four! Well, the software accounts for that. It's a bit like creating a table in Word, with rows and columns, so I set up 1 row with four columns and placed four boxes in that array, and then four lids in another array.
This is what happened.
You can choose what font you want and you can choose to engrave just the outline of the letters or rout the letter.
Then I turned the stock over and started routing the lips.
Then I profiled the outlines.
I had ripped the stock into two pieces so that when the lids went on their respective box bodies, their grain would more or less match. The bodies' stock was in the background of the last few pictures, so that I knew which side to rout.
Spot the CUF's work.
I've got an air cooled spindle so I touch it from time to time to monitor its temperature. It was a little warm, so I asked the software to pause, and on resuming, that happened. I'm still learning and have got more stock waiting in the sidelines.
Time to profile the outline of the boxes.
And here is the result of the CNC work.
And here's two of the finished in food safe wax.