OK, I had 8 rather large mortises to cut for the feet and top of the trestles for a new workbench and thought my little tool would come in handy. It did a handsome job, so I thought I would share. I also did my first video, just the camera on a tripod, 5 minutes of routing. Boring unless you like this sort of thing.
I thought this would be a good time to explain some of the things that need to be decided, even for something this simple. Unlike hand routing, you actually have to state how fast and how deep to plunge, what the step-over or overlap is, and whether to climb or conventional cut.
So I chose: 1 inch per second feed rate, 1/2 inch per second plunge rate, 1/3 inch plunge per pass, 2 inch final depth, 40% step-over, and conventional. So routing a 2”x2.5”x2” mortise takes about 2.5 minutes each. I could push it faster, but it is actually removing quite a bit of wood even at this rate.
This is called Pocket routing, as opposed to Raster (carving), VCarve (signs), or Profile (cutting out) routing. I took off the dust skirt so you could see it work and hand held the vacuum.
Steve
-- Stevethepeeve -- I'm no rocket surgeon
12 comments so far
gator9t9
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295 posts in 596 days
posted 586 days ago
Pretty Darn neat …..oh yes ….
Mike Bonney Lake
-- Mike in Bonney Lake " If you are real real real good your whole life, You 'll be buried in a curly maple coffin when you die."
GaryK
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9521 posts in 880 days
posted 586 days ago
Very cool!
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
motthunter
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2079 posts in 691 days
posted 586 days ago
extremely cool
-- making sawdust....
Damian Penney
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1030 posts in 883 days
posted 586 days ago
:) Cool
-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
Max
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14347 posts in 1165 days
posted 586 days ago
That is really slick…..
-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT
teenagewoodworker
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2479 posts in 660 days
posted 586 days ago
wow that is amazing. fantastic job!!!!
Scott Bryan
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20538 posts in 714 days
posted 586 days ago
Steve,
This is great. You have done well with this.
Thanks for sharing.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
jm82435
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508 posts in 634 days
posted 586 days ago
Like staring into a fire, there is something mesmerizing about watching a CNC run. You have two motors driving your Y axis. Is this for rigidity? Does each require its own stepper controller? Where did you get your leadscrews and ant-backlash nuts? You are obviously a Vcarve Pro user now, have you used other Cam Software? Bobcad for example? We use EdgeCam at work ($$$), my buddy uses Bobcad. I am just getting my feet wet with my router (the 3 axis are moving- no spindle yet (I have a sharpie road runner ha ha)(still working up to a spiro-graph speaking of cool software)). For the capability and price points Vectric looks like a great deal. I can’t wait to try them out (the different Vectric flavors – Photo looks really cool). I love your design, I especially like the vertical vise on the end.
-- A thing of beauty is a joy forever...
Karson
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25794 posts in 1292 days
posted 585 days ago
Great job. Cool video.
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
greener
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5 posts in 536 days
posted 478 days ago
I knew that I recognized that name (spalm) from the cnczone. Great machine, thanks for sharing. I got mine finished and I’ve been playing with alot of the same sort of things. I’ll have to add some blog post of things that I’ve been playing with.
Nice to know that your here as well.
Brian
jm540
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133 posts in 311 days
posted 268 days ago
I have been watching a guy I found googling build your own cnc router is this the same machine
-- jay Rambling on and on again
Matt
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178 posts in 264 days
posted 262 days ago
I imagine he’s using 2 steppers on the Y-axis to avoid racking. My machine has belt drives and two motors on the Y. Fast, fast. Good job. Want to trade notes some time? I’m still a rookie at the CNC.
-- Matt - My Websites - http://www.bestinwood.com - Hand Tools :: http://www.workshopgarage.com - Small Shops