Scratch Build – In Progress Epic PC Kyubu: Help me donate to the Tsunami! | 21.3.2011

Ah, my inspiration was the Japanese flag actually

Oh and will this be a quick project, probably not. I just spent 45 minutes polishing one of the pieces I just cut and I have say about 12 more to go. Im taking my time haha.

 

The sunrise type cutout I done was inspired by asian art, used to be an anime fan & asian cinema fan & still am but good new anime is getting rare, either that or I've finally outgrown it at 33 lol , I'll be finding out for myself how much effort polishing acrylic will be on my next project, I'm raising the challenge bar high compared to my previous ones for my next project, fun times ahead .

 

You need to build yourself a dust collection system. They also make mufflers for the vacs, but usually people put them in another room and plumb them in with pvc. The place I used to work for makes $100,000 and up cnc router/cutter tables for the prepress and signage industry. That's usually how they set up the tables.

 

Good to see some parts for the build there. I guess you do have a bit of work to do just getting the cnc setup the way you want it. look forward to this project

 

Hmm, I wonder what wood I could use to dampen the sound sufficiently. I could build a box around it with foam and wood. Do they have any tips on keeping the vac strong even when the MDF is leaking during a cut?

A CNC for a modder? Well it won't stay at stock

 

Yeah, paint it black, change all LEDs, put a couple of CCFLs under it and sleeve all visible wires!
Oh, and watercool that bad boy, too, hahaha.

 

It's already watercooled but I might change the vac configuration so it can hold smaller parts down. At current, the grid itself has squares that are just too big, ill be milling into it to almost double the suction area.

 

Heh, their tables didn't pull through mdf. The top was steel, with a grid of holes maybe a 32nd of an inch in diameter spaced out in a half inch grid. Over this was a sacrificial polymer sheet about a quarter inch thick with corresponding holes. The tables are zoned for vac, but if whatever was being cut was smaller, they'd just use poster board to fill in the uncovered areas. For your setup, some corrugated board would work. If you build a box around the pumps, they will overheat. Our new demo room had the vac pump, air compressor and a couple power inverters in it. It then had it's own air conditioner.

 

I might have to just deal with the sound as the pumps create a huge amount of heat. I am slowly finding the limits of the machine in order to get the best results. I came to the realisation that I needed to engrave at 1000mm/min rather than 1500mm/min to stop the acrylic from melting etc etc, I still need to find at what speed gives the best finish on the acrylic.

Then theres the never ending climb mill vs conventional mill argument with acrylic. I will most likely do up a batch of 10*70 rectangles all at different speeds and using both methods of cutting. The straight cutter can go through acrylic at 8000mm/min but the finish isnt great whilst any slower will cause melting etc etc, I will work it all out soon

 

The cleaner the initial cut the least amount of sanding for you .

 

Strangely enough, im actually quite enjoying sanding...I must be going bonkers.

Moving in was and still is very challenging. Clearly the amount of space we had previously has now shrunk but the stuff we own hasnt exactly shrunk with it. This presents a challenge...and a headache.


Old place


New place


My CNC room


The CNC is actually going at the moment as I type this post and I can see what it is doing through the webcam which is handy because I can't see through sound proof walls, im not superman or anything haha.


I have a heap of footage that will eventually make it to my youtube page but at the moment I am quite pre-occupied with the CNC. I filled the leak spots with silicon and will re-route them flat.



As for the table, I will give it more suction points to deal with the smaller parts I am making. In simple terms, I am doubling the amount of squares on the table to distribute suction to a greater number of points.



I'm not deliberately being a tease. As I type this post, the front panel is being engraved and cut. There will be two red cold cathodes that will remain unseen but they will provide a glow for that engraved bit.

More to come!

 

Very cool. I really want to see that panel done.

 

Its half done at current and I am waiting for some silicon seals on the same cut to dry. Should be completed tomorrow

 

Takes long to CNC eh? But it'll be worth it.

 

Must be nice to see it finally taking shape .

 

I hope your cnc has brushes in front of the gantry rollers. All that crap flying around the room is going to get in there and cause issues.

 

I knew progress would be slow but yes, its good to finally see it start out!

Yeah I might look at modding something to solve that issue. The chunks flying off the machine are relatively large though so I am not overly worried at the moment.

 

Ah some more progress!


The front panel is now cut and ready.






As you can see here, there is another piece on top. On top of that piece will be the black kyubu squares and underneath that will be the red cold cathodes. The effect is such that you cannot see the light source from the front or inside but you will still see the red shining through.

 

Love that front panel .

 

Sometime around last year I bought a straight cutter for acrylic. Solid carbide and expensive (around 70AUD for that one bit) but no matter what I tried I just couldnt get a good enough finish.

At the time I was cutting at around 1200mm/min with single flute cutters and whilst they produced a great finish, 1200 to 1400mm was their limit, any faster with 3mm passes and they would eventually snap (something that should never happen with carbide bits and acrylic).

Anyhow, I dusted the straight cutter off, determined to find its sweet spot. I had read on another machining forum that straight cutters do better when they go through the material faster.

I basically made a grid full of squares and for each speed I did two boxes, one box would be cut with a conventional cut (right, up, left, down) and the other would be cut with a climb cut (left up right, down). Each pair of boxes would be done at the same speed.

1000mm/min, 1500, 2000, 2500 etc etc all the way up to 10 meters a minute. I collected the squares and inspected each one with a magnifying glass and found that 6000mm/min climb cutting provided the best finish of them all.

The moral of the story? Well I recut the first panel to get the best possible finish and....

The first time I did this cut it took 2 hours

The recut of that panel timed in at just 30 minutes...6000mm/minute is fast!