Hi! I’m looking to make a custom wall plate. You know, one of those white, plastic covers used on lightswitches and power outlets.
I want to take a blank 4-gang plate and cut eight rounded-square holes, each about 15mm wide.
My first thought was to maybe use a laser? But it seems like it might be difficult to get a clean cut without discoloration. My next thought was to use a CNC router, but I’m not sure if Asmbly has any which are suitable for small plastic parts like this.
Would anyone be able to make a recommendation? I’m new to Asmbly and I would like my first class to be related to this project Thanks
If you have the files in something like fusion360, you could always resin print the plates. You can sand, prime, and paint from the grey resin with little effort, and they would look pretty decent.
For example, here are some guitar hero controller buttons I’m printing out for a co-worker
I have a vcarve file for that that will make precisely this on the CNC router; I’d be happy to share it. I used it to make the face plate for the outlet box I made, shown here: Electric Cord Reel - Outlet Box Prototype That was originally just a blank plate with only the four corner screw holes.
Many/most of those plates are made of PVC, which you cannot cut on the lasers.
3d printing is a cool idea and additive manufacturing is definitely more in my wheelhouse compared to subtractive.
I’m putting this in the wall of my house, and so I really want it to match the other wall plates. I’m not sure whether I’d be able to match the surface finish to the degree I’d like.
Really curious to see how those guitar frets come out! The original Guitar Hero ones have a really distinct feel
Would definitely appreciate seeing your vcarve file! CNC routing is new to me so a reference like yours would be great.
Sounds like a laser is definitely not the way to go. So it is okay to cut plastic stuff on the router? Would you recommend I sign up for the CNC Router classes? (Not sure if I need to take woodshop safety first?)
I don’t think you technically need to take woodshop safety, but I’d definitely recommend it so you have access to the other woodshop tools, including the tools on the tool wall. If you want to use the CNC, which I agree is the best tool for the job here, then yeah you should sign up for the class. If it’s just a one-off project and you don’t anticipate using it again, you can try to ask for help from a trained member to make your cut for you. @mgmoore’s file sounds like it would look something like this, which doesn’t sound exactly what you need. You can design your cut in illustrator or coreldraw if you prefer that, and it should be a simple 1-operation, one-pass cut with a 1/4" endmill (assuming your inside corners are >= 1/4" radius.)
And yes, plastic and even some metals are totally a-ok on the router. depending on the plastic, you may have to play around with settings to optimize cut quality but I think PVC is pretty easy.
You’ll learn where to get the makerspace edition of VCarve and how to use it in the CNC class. You’ll probably mainly need to set the size and thickness of your plate to use this file. That’s assuming you’re using a 1/8" end mill; otherwise you’ll need to set the tool in each of the toolpaths appropriately.
Addendum: And if you don’t want to take the CNC class just for this, this file would be a starting point for anyone you would get to help you.
Wait, I was assuming “eight rounded-square holes”, with them overlapping, was you describing the standard 4 outlet plate. Are you talking about 8 different holes? What are you trying to cover?
From his description, I was thinking of something a little more like this, which is why I said your vcarve might not be exactly what he needs. But by all means if it is accurate then that’ll work perfectly!
Thanks
