A little design advice needed...

[Nate Sirek]

Hey Guys,

Just looking for some opinion on this project I'm looking at. I've got a customer who brought this in (see attached photo); it's a chair back from an old table set that they have. He wants to make an exact replica of this broken one that he brought me. Assuming the broken left part is the exact same as the right side, where would ya'll start? I've got an older PRT Alpha. Worth my time to buy the probe and start there or is there other routes to take? Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

[rcnewcomb]

Contact Brady to see about getting it laser scanned. His web site is: http://www.ibild.com/3DServices.htm

[bryan]

I agree with Randell on scanning, but I looking and another option on this as a repair.

How thick is the carving? It maybe just to thin to try this approach...

If you can just scan the part that broke off and make a clean cut on the broken part. You could just carve what is missing and then attach to the orginial part that remains. Plus the major task of matching the stain.

What I see is a lot of hand carving and that will be hard to match with our cnc techology.

But I really don't know if the client is looking at just getting close or wanting to keep as much of the old.

Just another way to do the same thing, which is good but at the same time makes you wonder which is the best way.

[myxpykalix]

To try to probe that with any detail would take DAYS and most likely not get a file that was small enough to be usable. The best thing is a scan regardless of how it gets done.

[dlcw]

Hey Guys,

Just looking for some opinion on this project I'm looking at. I've got a customer who brought this in (see attached photo); it's a chair back from an old table set that they have. He wants to make an exact replica of this broken one that he brought me. Assuming the broken left part is the exact same as the right side, where would ya'll start? I've got an older PRT Alpha. Worth my time to buy the probe and start there or is there other routes to take? Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

Tell the customer that an exact replica is going to be VERY pricey because it is a very complex model. Since there are so many variables, it should be a strictly time and material project as the part will have to be scanned, then brought into Aspire and have some intense cleanup done on the model, then you have to create the tool paths and then actually carve it.

Personally I would not take on this project unless the customer let me know what their budget was for the project and it was a pretty big number. Probably a thousand or more $'s.

Not many people have the talent and skill to take a complex model like that and reproduce it exactly. That is an expensive level of talent and experience.

Just my $.02 worth.

[billp]

With a good laser scan there shouldn't BE any "intense cleanup" to be done...
Randall has the right idea....

[Brady Watson]

Nate,

The biggest challenges on this job will be in machining time and selecting tooling fine enough to resolve all the detail. Of course, once in CAM a simulation will quickly tell you how small of a tool you'd need to go.

Digitizing the part and repairing it properly is easy & affordable. This sort of work is an everyday affair around here.

Feel free to contact me off-list for details.

-B

[Chuck Keysor]

I hope that if Brady, or anyone tackles this job, that when it is all done, they can post their results. It would provide some good instruction and inspiration for many of us. Thanks, Chuck

[Nate Sirek]

Hi Guys,

I know it's been quite a while since I started this thread. For whatever reason I used to get email notifying me when new replies hit my post and on this one I didn't. Normally getting such quick replies from everyone on here is a standard and I found it odd that I hadn't seen anything. Being so busy I completely forgot to follow up and read on here.

It would be AWESOME if someone developed a good iPhone/android app for our TalkShopBot forum as most of the time when I'm digging through here for info I'm at my shop with limited internet access usually via my smartphone and it never remembers my login info :) ANYWAYS.... Laser scanner. Sounds like a good place to start.

I did tell the customer it would most likely be very pricey. I think the piece is somewhere in the 15/16th are of thickness but I'll double check when I go back to my shop for my second shift tonight and post again with some details. Personally think from a finishing standpoint that it would be harder to fix it then to just make a whole new piece. I'll also PM Brady to see what his thoughts are unless you all think I should start somewhere different then that.

Anyway, it was a nice surprise to see this thread with all the replies today. I actually logged on to start another thread with some questions about cutting laminate covered sheets of particle board for some cabinets and saw this thread sitting here still. So I apologize for keeping everyone hanging on this one. I have been just swamped with boring laborus cabinet work lately and haven't had much time to do any fun CNC work. Hope everyone is doing well. Cheers.