Files for Woodsmith Shop's stacking sawhorses

[TimS]

The fine folks at Woodsmith Shop's parent company (August Home Publishing) have agreed to let me post the VCarve Pro drawing and ShopBot tool paths for my version of their stacking sawhorse project. They had only two requirements, both of which are very reasonable:

- post must be available at no charge (I asked only for non-commercial distribution and I don't get paid for anything downloaded here so compliance was trivial)

- that I include the following statement (I wasn't sure if it needed to be in the drawing or in this message so I put it in both places):

Copyright August Home Publishing Company. Printed with permission of publisher. This article originally appeared in Woodsmith or Shop Notes Magazine. For more information about Woodsmith Magazine go to www.woodsmith.com or Shop Notes Magazine go to www.shopnotes.com

You can find their original article on making their stacking sawhorses via non-CNC methods at: http://www.woodsmithshop.com/downloa...gsawhorses.pdf

The enclosed VCarve Pro drawing has each major part in its own layer to simplify creating the various tool paths and to help declutter things a bit as I worked on it.

I've also enclosed the tool path files for the ShopBot I use. That translates to them being generated for "ShopBot Arc (inch)w/speed(*.sbp)".

I use a 1/4" plunging end mill from Centurion Tools on a ShopBot Alpha w/ the spindle. I have those tool paths set to cut at 12,000 rpm and 5 inches/sec with cut depth equal to bit diameter. Adjust as needed for your own machine/bits of course.

I know there are other ways to set up the cutters (ex: deeper first pass w/ 1/32" allowance offset and a final pass with no allowance). This was my first ShopBot project so I went a bit conservative.

There is a layer and a tool path defined for screw holes to secure the pieces but I did not include that tool path. It includes locations where I would already have a screw installed to hold the piece before running that tool path but if I deleted those locations, somebody would grumble I wasn't holding down key spots.

So, you're welcome to enable that layer for yourself and see where I suggest you place the screws. There may seem to be a lot of screws holding it down, but a fair number of those locations were added due to parts wanting to break the original 3-D tabs (I went back to non-3D tabs) and little bits wanting to come loose.

The samples I've cut already had an error in the top pieces. The inset at each edge was a full inch instead of a quarter-inch. I fixed it in the version I've posted here plus added 1/32" on each side to account for not manually chamfering the edges of the tabs like the original article does. You may have to tweak that to 1/16" back on each side (please let me know if this doesn't work out for anybody).

There were a few revision numbers skipped along the way and some numbers were used for fairly minor changes. So, the enclosed "rev 26" didn't really take quite that many changes to get it right.

The tool paths enclosed here are broken up into distinct chunks to match the layers in the drawing. I tend to work that way so I can fine tune a smaller tool path without waiting through the cutting of a combined tool path.

Size limits on posting a .zip file prevent me from also including the "all tool paths combined" single tool path file that just does it all. I'll post that next as a separate .zip file - it's too big by itself to meet forum size limits but compresses very small as a .zip file.

Before gluing and screwing the pieces together, I dry fit the tops and shelves so they can be marked for trimming on the table saw. The top must be trimmed to match the beveled end pieces or they won't stack properly. I trim the shelves as well for a nicer finished look.

The tabs were cleaned up using a laminate trimmer and flush cutting bit. I learned that trick from somebody demonstrating at the ShopBot booth during the recent San Mateo MakerFaire.

I also gave the edges and all surfaces a very quick (and light) sanding before assembly so they feel a bit nicer to the touch.

Final tweak before gluing and screwing was to pop a 1/8" round over bit into the laminate trimmer to give the top and bottom of the handholds a quick once-over. Makes them much more comfy.

If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear it here.

Thanks again to the August Home Publishing Company.

Tim S.

[TimS]

This message has the tool path attached that rolls all of the prior individual tool paths into one big one. I like cutting in stages so I don't normally use all-encompassing versions like this. But, it's here if that's how you prefer your tool paths.

Tim S.

[stump]

Cool! Thanks for going through all the extra work of getting permission and posting the files. Also thanks for the excellent explanation!

[scottbot]

Super cool!
Thanks Tim. I appreciate all the effort you put into sharing this with us all.

Scott

[geneb]

I'll second that - thanks!

g.

[dougo]

Thanks for sharing Tim plus all of your hard work.

[TimS]

Thanks for the kind words. Learned a lot from this project and now I'm working on a handful of other 'Bot projects. Each one teaches me a bit more about ShopBot'ing, VCarve'ing, etc.

Tim S.

[mick40]

Tim,

Could you post the dxf file, my version of Vcarve pro is older than the one you have so I cant use the files.

Thanks for doing this, much appreciated!
Mick

[TimS]

Tim,

Could you post the dxf file, my version of Vcarve pro is older than the one you have so I cant use the files.

Thanks for doing this, much appreciated!
Mick

Mick,


The dxf version is 6.3MB - which exceeds the attachment limits here.

I compressed it into a .zip file and it's 1.2 MB - which still exceeds the attachment limits here.

If you send me a private message here with an email address, I can try emailing it to you. At 1.2 MB, it should fit under the limits most ISPs impose on email attachments (typically about 5 MBs so plenty small enough in the .zip format).

I'm open to other suggestions as well (in case you have a drop box somewhere, etc).

Tim S.

[MogulTx]

I will tell you that DropBox is a viable solution.... I heard about it through this forum a few months ago. It essentially allows you to share a file on your computer without it allowing access to other files. It is simple to use.

I checked it out and used it to allow access to a cut file that I had made and then my IT brother was telling me about some "new, cool way of sharing files" a few weeks ago. It was DropBox. He gave me a bunch of details and I told him I had already tried it and like it. It gets his stamp of approval as a good resource.

Search on the web and see what new info is available on it...

Monty