BILL’S PROJECTS

Bill’s Projects is a spot for me to keep all the little projects I am working on. I am a maker and like to make stuff. Since my blog is really not about just my projects I thought it would be appropriate to separate my ramblings from the main page. If you have any questions about my projects please leave a comment.

MODIFYING MY CNC ROUTER

I just can’t leave it alone. I am constantly modifying my CNC Router table to add new features and functionality. I originally built the machine in 2009 and have done 3 major upgrade prior to this. In this fourth upgrade I am adding machined aluminum parts to replace the MDF parts.

The Machine was built from a set of plans I got from Joescnc. the plans showed a basic machine that could be easily built and modified with out the need for metal working machinery. I have slowly been tweaking the machines construction for the last 4 years to the point that it is now a distant cousin to the original. After my 3rd rebuild was so successful I decided to finalize the design in aluminum

 

This time around I am adding all aluminum parts that I designed nearly 2 years ago. Time and money kept me from completing the project up till now. I have been slowly chipping away at the project and building the parts one at a time. First I completed the Y axis plates from 3/4″ 6061 aluminum bar stock.

The new Y plates will support rack & Pinion drives from CNC ROUTER PARTS. The plates will ride on V-Bearing mounted to specially designed steel standoffs. The V- Bearings are fully adjustable for tightness and contact. I did all the design work using Alibre Design and Mastercam.

I will post more information as the rebuild continues.

 

METAL WORKING

I got the chance to spend some time in a machine shop this week to work on a project I have been thinking about for a while. I started with some 3/4″ thick aluminum. I milled the aluminum flat on one edge then I cut the aluminum to rough size with a Horizontal bandsaw.

I stacked a bunch of parts into a vice on a Bridgeport milling machine and machined them to the finished length and machined the sides square.

Once all the parts were cut to size I took them to a machining center for more work.

PLAQUE PROJECT

I was recently asked to make an award  plaque to be awarded to the local Lions Club. The Canastota Lions Club does some wonderful things in our community. Each year they sponsor multiple teens to attend a youth leadership seminar put on by the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Organization aka HOBY.  The Canastota Lions also provide a fantastic Chicken BBQ lunch for the HOBY Ambassadors every year. The folks at the New York Central HOBY seminar wanted give a special thanks to the Lions for all that they do.

I made the Lions a plaque using my CNC Router and Vectric Aspire software. I made the plaque out of Maple and used Stencil ink to provide the colors. This was my first time using colored stencil inks on a project. I am happy with the results and the Lions were to.

CNC SIGN PROJECT

I have been working on a new CNC sign project for a neighbor. She wants a sign with a picture of a cow on it. I have been doing a lot of experimentation on different techniques to make the cow look good both up close and at a distance. I have been using MDF for the test material because it is cheap and easy to come by (Like some people I knew in college. But that’s a different story.).  Anyway what I would do is try a technique and if it didn’t work I would just cut the next technique over the previous one. Usually I could get two or three tries before I had to change the wood.

I have also been experimenting with different  color stains and paint to get the look I wanted. Here are some picture of the  attempts. When I get a technique I am happy with, I will make the sign in the expensive OAK board. There is no way that this project is economical to make but I am gaining a lot of knowledge. One thing I found is that the Best Bit for doing this kind of work is the Laser Point Bit from CMT.  Here is a link to the Bit I used. I got it on Amazon (Disclosure).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will be doing a complete in depth report on this project in a few days. I will provide a list of all the materials I used and details on the carving techniques.  If you want  to be notified when that blog post comes out why not subscribe to the newsletter or RSS feed.

CNC SIGN PROJECTS:

PART ONE

  PART TWO

 PART THREE

PART FOUR

PART FIVE

PART SIX

PART SEVEN

PART EIGHT

PART NINE – COMING SOON

 

 

Disclosure:  Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.  Please understand that I have personal experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful or I find them useful, not because of the small commissions I might make if you decide to buy something.  Please don’t spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

 

DUST DEPUTY CART

One recent DIY CNC project I’ve done is a Dust Deputy Cyclone Separator Cart for my Shop Vacuum. With the help of a friend we took a project from a magazine and converted the plans to be cut on a CNC router Table. Converting plans from a woodworking magazine into a CNC project is not difficult to do and it can be fun. If you have an idea for a CNC Project you would like to see, leave a comment below or Tweet to me on Twitter @BillGriggs.  For more details about this project Click this link DIY-CNC PROJECTS.

 

 

C.N.C. Corner Clamps

I wanted to clear some of the clutter out of my shop which consists of one side of a two car garage.  I looked around for a while to see if there might be some suitable plans out their.  I came across some plans from Wood Magazine which were a good fit. http://www.woodstore.net/besy.html.

I have several bench top sized tools but very little Bench space. So the answer was to have a way to only use the tool I am working on and have the others stored away.

Anyway, as I began building the cabinets I realized I needed more clamps and braces. There is a drawing of a neat clamp brace on their website at http://woodmagazine.com/brace. I decided to draw them up in Vectric V-Carve Pro and cut them on my CNC Router Table.

I modified the clamps to a smaller size because I didn’t have enough scrap Ply on hand to make larger ones.  I added some dogbone fillets to the inside corners. These dogbone fillets allow 90 degree plywood to sit flush with the edges of the clamps. I will post the design files for my modified clamps here.

 

 

 

 

 

Sieg Minimill X2 Belt Drive Upgrade kit

I performed and upgrade to my Sieg X2 Minimill to get rid of the fragile, noisy, plastic gears. There is a full review and a couple of videos posted here.

 

 UPDATING A LASER CUTTER

I was given a very old laser cutter from a friend who’s shop was updating to a new machine. The laser cutter is an LMI LaserGraver II which is about 20 years old. The machine still works but like most old  machines it is much slower than state of the art machines. Back when they made this machine, most  laser cutters functioned like giant dot matrix printer and only printer (cut) one horizontal line at a time. Printing this way (is called Raster printing) was a very slow wasteful method. Many new Laser cutters will print this old format but will also print in Vector format as well. Vector format allows the laser to follow a line so that the cutter is only moving to areas of the material where something need cutting.

I plan to replace the old stepper motors with newer ones along with a new modern controller. The Synrad 30 watt CO2 laser tub is still in good working order so i will use it as the basis of the new laser. I may use Makerslide as the linear system and discard some of the other obsolete parts.

My old laser cutter needs a facelift.

 

 

My New Computer Desk

 

I wanted to have a new computer desk for my lair but I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I decided to make my new computer desk because it is one more thing you can make with a cnc router. I wanted a desk that was more functional than the $39 computer cart I had been using.  I looked around at all sorts of desks to find one that met my needs. Since I had two computers that I wanted to work on and have access to at the same time, I knew needed a large desk.  I needed a desk with space for three monitors, a laser printer, a scanner, a 3D printer as well as a microphone and an Ipad. I also wanted some room for shelves, with storage and to make it upgradable as my needs changed.

It seemed like allot to expect from an inexpensive off the shelf computer desk and in fact it was too much to expect. Well, during my search for a suitable desk I found one company that  has a designed desks which are functional and beautiful. Their product are flat pack furniture made from sustainable woods like bamboo and designed to assemble without the need for tools. I watched several of their Youtube videos about their products and I really liked their work. I just couldn’t afford $1000 to purchase all the parts I would need to make my dream desk. So what’s a maker to do?  Why Make of course.

I decides to reverse engineer the project and come up with a similar desk to meet my desires. I took my handy ….. READ MORE