All,
Here is your Christmas present–the December CNC SIG Recap! The recorded Zoom meeting link is at the end of the post.
Austin made a light filter and decided not to cut all the way through the wood. He said there might be some issues from the fact that the blade wasn’t sharp, and there was still some burning on the light filter, but it was worth it. He used a 1/4’’ downcut bit.
Austin also added epoxy eyes to his kitty cats, Skeletor and Rosie, and they glow in the dark! Here’s Rosie he has pictured with the glow-in-the-dark powder epoxy (using about 2.5g of the powder) for the eyes + finished with spray-on shellac. And while you can’t exactly see it from the picture, there was a fly that landed in one of her eyes. Jurassic Park here we come!
Andrew made this astoundingly good epoxy inlay for a cutting board as a Christmas gift for his sister-in-law. I know she’s going to love it tomorrow! He used a blowtorch to get rid of the epoxy bubbles. We also learned you can use isopropyl alcohol on top of the epoxy to get rid of the surface tension from the epoxy. He used cutting board oil to seal it at the end.
He used a 6 degree ball nose bit but inputted it as a V-bit for the detailed work. For some reason ball nose is half the angle but V-bits are the full angle…? Steve said that with a ball nose you get a deeper plunge into the material vs a regular V-bit where it lifts up as it’s moving so it doesn’t have that sizable plunge. A 1/8’’ O-flute bit did the clearance.
Additionally, Andrew mentioned working with people on a schedule to ensure the CNC rails are lubed up. I think James and him are talking about setting up a routine maintenance for the machine so we don’t have any issues don’t the line.
Jason sublimated a, b, c’s onto wood for elementary school students to learn from. He had painted a white piece of board which he then cut into letters and sublimated. Some advice on this was to use 3D tabs and maybe try sublimating and then cutting before sublimating. A final bit of this topic involved using Quik Print, which is a screenprinting organization in Austin that pushes the ink directly into the wood, and where you get an amazing finish. Either way, the kids will learn their a, b, c’s!
Next, Steve shared with us a one-of-a-kind breadboard he made! Ngl, I had to look back at the recording because I was not sure what I took a picture of a few weeks ago, and I needed to not say Steve made a NASCAR racing track for fleas. His discussion is around the 1:42:00 mark of the recording for any of those interested.
Michael brought to us a vacuum attachment for the CNC. James shared with us that the thicker the MDF the better the vacuum holds, and that’s why he suggested using a thicker MDF. James also shared with us how there are two things you need to hold something down with a vacuum: surface area, and air flow. If you h, meaning that there’s always a balance between the two.
Finally, James brought up the idea of how we’re thinking of how to reorient the space for the CNC machine, especially the iQ. This is to move the iQ out of of the corner so it’s not so cramped. Maybe this has already been done I’m not sure…? Either way, it goes to show you how we discuss all kinds of things CNC related at the SIG.
Recorded Zoom meeting: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q3hhvQaugDG0nY6K7lyGTCSNp1-o31V9/view?usp=sharing
I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday, January 4th at 12:30pm at Asmbly for the first CNC SIG of 2025! The theme is “New Beginnings.” Cya guys then!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
@jamesfreeman @SteveW @michleon100 @TravisGood @Kasper @taylor.gates @Rennay @bwatt @rjnevels @Spex_guy
Joaquim