I love my CNC machine

JasonDorie · 2012-01-24 02:32

I'll post pics of this over the next few days as the project moves forward, but I don't want to give away what it is yet.

I saw a photo of a thing online and thought, "That's cool! I want one!" Then I immediately thought, "wait.. . I have an industrial sized replicator - I could just make one!" So I'm doing that. It's the biggest thing I've made so far with my CNC. I modeled it in 3d, generated all the profiles of the parts, counted them all, and nested them into four 4' x 5' sheets of plywood. This is the first of four sheets. More pics as it progresses. I really hope it works.

Martin_H · 2012-01-24 06:07

That's nice looking plywood. Is it walnut veneer?

If this turns out nice it may tempt me to build a bigger CNC once I get my little one working.

GordonMcComb · 2012-01-24 08:51

Looks like the makings of a lyre or small harp. And a nice one at that.

First person to guess what it is gets one, too, right??

-- Gordon

JasonDorie · 2012-01-24 10:41

Martin - I think it's Birch. I had a choice of red oak, this, and a very light sand color. This one had the color and the grain I was looking for. I love having the large machine. It's much faster and stronger than my small one, and I've now done a few large pieces using full-width sheets. I can cut up to 4' x 5'. It's a big chunk of space, but it's a useful thing to have.

Gordon - You're the second person to suggest it might be an instrument, but nope. I don't play the harp.

The large, closed-loop piece on the bottom of the stack is just over 4 feet long. That'd be a big harp.

idbruce · 2012-01-24 19:55

Okay, I am stumped as to what it might be.

JasonDorie · 2012-01-25 13:28

A few more pictures - I have 3 of the four sheets cut now. I have to test-assemble everything for fit, sand the rough spots, and label the parts for staining.

1st pic - My nesting software would probably be really good at jigsaw puzzles.

2nd pic - There are 50 of these pieces (25 per side) and pretty much everything that comes off the machine needs a bit of hand-finishing.
3rd pic - 25 of the pieces assembled and test-fit on one of the final part assemblies.
4th pic - About 1/2 assembled, to get an idea of weight, fit, scale, and look.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2012-01-25 13:40

I was wondering if you used a program to do the nesting. Did you write it?

It's great when everything just fits, isn't it?

Judging from the "grille slots", I'm guessing it may be a subwoofer cabinet.

-Phil

JasonDorie · 2012-01-25 13:50

No, I didn't write it. The nesting and toolpath generation was done in VCarve Pro by Vectric. At $600 it's a bit pricey for a hobbyist, but it's very user friendly, intuitive, and worth every penny.

As an extra hint, the 4th pic is approximately half of the final form, laid on its side. The flat "grille" on the left is the bottom.

idbruce · 2012-01-25 15:08

LOL I am still stumped, but I guess some type of forming apparatus for wet wood or hot plastic.

JasonDorie · 2012-01-25 15:26

Here's a giveaway pic. Testing for size against the thing it's replacing.

I modeled it from scratch, but it's made to look like this: http://www.becausewecan.org/LED_Interactive_Coffee_Tables

I'm not planning on doing the lights right away, but I've left space between the top of the drawers and the bottom of the table to allow for it. (the 3rd pic above is one of the drawers being test-assembled)

JasonDorie · 2012-01-26 02:07

A couple more pics - I have everything cut except for a couple parts I miscounted, and a couple that were damaged during cutting. The shots below show the indents for the drawer handles, and the overall look of the finished table, less the drawers. It's just test-fit for the moment though - Now I have to sand, stain, and do final assembly.

Roy Eltham · 2012-01-26 03:01

That's deluxe!
Are you going to do the LED thing like the one in the link?

JasonDorie · 2012-01-26 11:35

Eventually perhaps, but not right away. I left room for it in the design.

jdolecki · 2012-01-26 12:10

Very nice are you going to us all one color leds?

GordonMcComb · 2012-01-26 14:52

Of course, a coffee table!

Anyway, nice mid-century design. I like it even with a plain glass top.

-- Gordon

JeffreyMcGrew · 2012-01-26 19:23

OK, so I'm the guy who designed that table and who's company used to sell that table and I just have to say...

...that it's totally awesome you're inspired to make one! Thanks for liking our stuff enough to want to make one for yourself. Indeed, giant robots are empowering & awesome. ;-)

We actually release all our design work under a creative commons licence. I've attached our original vectors to this post as well if you want to play. If you'd have e-mailed me, I would have sent them directly to you so you didn't have to reverse engineer the table.

It looks like you're making some design changes that I'd love to see more detail about!

Thanks again!

Jeffrey McGrew

JasonDorie · 2012-01-26 20:06

Hi Jeff,

I knew it was you guys (and that you're local for me - I'm in Petaluma) and planned to give you a heads up. I'd been trolling your site and noticed that you have open houses every so often and thought I might pop in, or at the very least send you an email to let you know I'd stolen your design. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I'm very relieved to hear that you're ok with that.

It's gorgeous - I love the shape.

I'm curious to see how yours is constructed internally (bracing and support, the electronics bed, etc), so I'll certainly be looking at the vectors, but I'm pretty happy with how the overall shape of mine turned out.

The drawers are using file cabinet style drawer slides - they're fully supported telescopic rails, so the action is very smooth, and they allow for full extension of the drawers. (I happened to have two pairs laying around) I measured the heck out of them and had the CNC drill pilots for all the screws so the placement will be as accurate as I can get it. Once I get it assembled I'll post a bunch more pictures (or just email you some).

idbruce · 2012-01-27 02:58

I knew it was a table all along

I was just testing everyone else

Looks good Jason. Keep up the good work.

Bruce

JasonDorie · 2012-02-01 17:49

Getting closer... I've started gluing up the slices.

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Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2012-02-01 20:19

A person can never have too many clamps!

'Can't wait to see the finished product!

-Phil

JasonDorie · 2012-02-01 20:30

Heh - I have about 6 or so more that aren't in that pic, and that's not counting the 4 teeny ones I have for small projects. You can certainly have too few.

JasonDorie · 2012-02-07 01:18

It's not -quite- finished, but it's close enough to be installed. I got impatient.

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mindrobots · 2012-02-07 02:17

Beautiful work, Jason!

Imagine doing something like that without the CNC!

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2012-02-07 08:57

That really turned out nice! Where did the design for the top come from? Did you write a program to generate it?

-Phil

Roy Eltham · 2012-02-07 12:03

JasonDorie.
Here's your next project: http://blog.makezine.com/2012/02/07/star-trek-enterprise-ncc-1701-c-coffee-table/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+makezineonline+%28MAKE%29&utm_content=Netvibes

I'll take one!

Roy

erco · 2012-02-07 14:08

JasonDorie: Just fabulous. You're a real craftsman and all your projects are top notch.

JasonDorie · 2012-02-07 15:53

Phil - Yes, the top was produced by a piece of software I wrote that runs a reaction/diffusion equation using an image control the concentrations of the morphogens. That's engineer speak for "it makes pictures all wormy". The software is free for personal use, and available here: http://jasondorie.com/page_cnc.html I took a biohazard symbol, reduced the contrast a lot, and fed it through. Then vectorized the result and got the machine to carve it into a piece of stained plywood.

In an odd twist, I sent pics of the finished product to Jeffrey McGrew (from BecauseWeCan, designer of the table that I based mine on), explaining how I'd done the top. Turns out he had used my software to cut an image for a friend just last week, and had no idea it was me who wrote it. Small world.

Erco -

Thank you.

Roy - Someone else sent me that this morning. It's cool, but I don't know if I could store it in the same room as my dignity.

On the other hand, I could make it for someone else and be totally OK with that. Want one? (now that I've potentially insulted you)

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2012-02-07 16:02

Jason,

How did you do the vectorization? It's particularly poignant for me today, since I've been working a program to create Gerber files from GIFs, so I can import an image into my PCB layout program.

Thanks,
-Phil

JasonDorie · 2012-02-07 16:04

I used VCarve Pro for this one, because it's also the tool I use to produce the cutting paths, but I've also used InkScape, and it fact I think it does a better job. It's also free.

Roy Eltham · 2012-02-07 16:22

JasonDorie wrote: »

Roy - Someone else sent me that this morning. It's cool, but I don't know if I could store it in the same room as my dignity. On the other hand, I could make it for someone else and be totally OK with that. Want one? (now that I've potentially insulted you)

If I had one it would be in my living room for everyone to see, along with all my other Star Trek and Star Wars stuff (note this blog entry showing my Star Wars Legos on display in my living room). I don't know if I would call it a lack of dignity so mush as a lack of "caring what other people think of what I think is cool"

I have lots more Star Wars stuff, though, and would probably prefer this: http://walyou.com/millennium-falcon-table/ and this: http://www.coated.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/star-wars-starships-fighters-clock-1.jpg

JasonDorie · 2012-02-07 18:07

I'm just giving you a hard time, and honestly I think Star Wars is cooler than Star Trek too. The small figures on the clock would be tricky, but I bet I could pull off the Millennium Falcon table. If you want it, I could make it.

I love my CNC machine

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