3D tools

I spent the last couple of nights after work tearing down the crappy work bench I had thrown together just to test the Shapeoko out. Now that I know it's working I took it apart and am building a base to build the cabinet on. I started with a 60" x 34.5" x 24" cabinet from HD. I built another the same size to hold the small shop vac and dust collector in the back. I took my time to precisely level it in both axis so I could remove the leveling feet from the CNC and stiffin it up.



When completed the cabinet for the CNC should be similar to this.

 

I received the furniture cam lock and doweling jig tonight. I did a little test with MDF and POW! it worked perfectly. It was a little pricey but worth it. It is made of aluminum with steel bushings and has a lot of settings for how thick your stock is. There are more parts in the box than in this pic. It included some bits as well. It is setup to add dowels on each side of the cam and an extension bar to add more sets of dowels and cams along a strait path.



The only thing I did extra is I used a 1/2 drill bit to taper the 10mm hole where the nut rests to get it to seat flush It is the brass part that the cam screws into. The cheaper cam kits use a plastic nut instead of a metal one so they don't need this step.



Now I'm ready to build this thing over the weekend.

 

So I wanted to add a dust collector to my CNC to make it easier to clean out and it makes the wet/dry vac last longer. One company makes a vortex part out of about $1 worth of plastic and sells them online for $50 or $100 if you want a 5 gallon bucket to hold the dust.



So I take a look at my wife's vacuum cleaner then do some measuring and it's off to tinkercad. A few hours later and an over night print and I come up with this.

5 Gallon bucket $3.29 Lid $1.48 1 1/4" hose (not for a vacuum) $12. 3D files free from my thingverse site.

 

I work with all of this stuff for a living. I moved to Philadelphia in November 2017 to build a "Makerspace" at the University of the Arts. I got to help pick out equipment and plan the space. I even designed most of the space using Rhino 3D.





Even got one of these miniature waterjets

 

I am also an artist and I design most of my sculptures using Rhino 3D. I currently have one for sale on Shapeways.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/EGB24RF5J/the-ultimate-truth?optionId=69196435

It's a smaller version of a 10ft tall sculpture that is now permanently installed in Blue Springs, MO.
http://nzbsculpture.com/commissions/#/the-ultimate-truth/

 

Long time listener, first time caller...

After watching the thread and some PM’s with @TK-422 pulles the trigger on Monoprice Select Mini. The son has show interest in learning and it was a cheap enough investment to at the very least tinker with. Hope to make my first “print” this weekend if my wife allows me and doesn’t put me to work all weekend

 

how durable is the plastic with these? is it relatively soft or harder plastic once its completed?

 

It's hard plastic and it's pretty tough. Of course if it's thinner than 1mm it's pretty easy to snap. I have broken a few parts that took a long time to print only because I was being stupid and testing "just how strong is this?". I just use PLA but there are stronger plastics you can use like PVC. You just need a 3D printer bed that can get hot enough to hold it. the Mini2 bed only gets as hot as 60*C but for PVC you need 110*C. I do also have a roll of flex PLA. It is somewhere between plastic and rubber. I used it as a seal for the security camera when the zoom lens was too long to put the cover back on. It's up there in a previous post here.

 

Subbed

 

I have been milling some aluminum and brass on my CNC so I had to add a blower nozzle. I picked one up that can blow air and liquid. I also stopped by HF and bought a beginners air hose kit to fit it to my air system. I removed the air connector and put on a quick connect. I also had to take the CNC Z axis apart to drill and tap the holes to fit it.



Now it's an easy connect when I need it.



It also doubles as an easy way to blow the dust off the part you are working on.

 

My first attempt to mill aluminum kinda worked. I'm still learning. The first part with the rough cut using a 2.4mm end mill worked well. When I was trying to do the cleaning cut I snapped a 1.2mm and 1.4mm end mill. I had to slow it way down and it worked fine with a 1.6mm end mill. The trouble is after snapping the two bits my X and Y axis were off by sub mm but it made the text look wonky. Also the paint in the picture below got burnt doing the outer cut by not having an air nozzle. It was throwing chips fine at first but as it got deeper it was plowing them and heated up the part too much.



You can see here where the paint is burnt and the text is off center.



I have a 1/8" block of brass shipping tomorrow. I will try it again.

 

I did it again in brass and it came out much better. Having the air nozzle really helped it out.



Now I am building a control box to go outside the CNC to hold all the electronics. It will be kinda large itself so I want to make it pretty. After cutting out what I needed on the CNC I painted on a clear coat to protect the mahogany. Then I sprayed a chrome paint to give the next step a better look.




Once it dried I mixed up some acrylic letex with color to fill in the voids. I set my brass inlays there to show where they will go. This is the front where the switches and Emergency stop will go.



The back half of the control box where the plugs go. It won't be seen but I gave it the same treatment just for the practice.

 

I am happy with the finished look of them.



After a lot of sanding I glued in the brass inlays and put a thick clear coat of epoxy resin on top.

It's like glass.

 

I have a VMC and a rostock max 3d printer I play around with. Yes the VMC is a personal item. Program with fusion 360 for the cnc Simplify 3d for the rostock and model with fusion and solidworks.

My work is also planning on adding a 5 axis waterjet to our inventory in the near future and they are handing the keys over to me

Picture of the cnc. Apparently I have nothing of the 3d printer on my phone.

 

You wouldn’t happen to have this file still? Or remember what it was called on thingverse? Been trying to find it with zero luck

 

https://www.thingiverse.com/tk-422/designs

 

You’re the man!

 

Hardcore Sub to this thread. That monoprice printer looks hella cool. Got a lot of little stuff knocking around my head that a 7x7x7 print space would be more than big enough for.

 

So I went a little too deep down the 3D printer rabbit hole last night.

I'm really looking at the monoprice ones, and I can't decide if I want the mini or the...not mini build envelope model. The mini has a 4.7 inch envelope, and some of the parts I want to make are 4.6ish inches. Do these printers do well at the far ranges of their axis' or should I up to the 7 inch non-mini model and have room to further expand?

 

Sub'd. Relevant to my interests.