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
10 comments so far
gator9t9
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282 posts in 147 days
posted 137 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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8404 posts in 431 days
posted 137 days ago
Very cool!
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
motthunter
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1155 posts in 242 days
posted 137 days ago
extremely cool
-- making sawdust....
Damian Penney
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621 posts in 434 days
posted 137 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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5429 posts in 716 days
posted 137 days ago
That is really slick…..
-- Max "Desperado", Salt Lake City, UT
teenagewoodworker
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1932 posts in 211 days
posted 137 days ago
wow that is amazing. fantastic job!!!!
Scott Bryan
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8497 posts in 265 days
posted 137 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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173 posts in 185 days
posted 137 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... - Keats
Karson
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12618 posts in 843 days
posted 136 days ago
Great job. Cool video.
-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com
greener
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5 posts in 87 days
posted 29 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