Desktop Deliciousness

[Brady Watson]

A few pics from today's testing session...Right off the machine.

-B

[denmanmarine]

wow, nice work

[myxpykalix]

Looks nice Brady. Is that machine #3 for you? When are you going to be getting a Handibot?

What size bit did you use? And what would that size project be used for, a light switch? nice

[scottp55]

Brady, NICE! Aspire or VCarved? One pass or 2? What bit,wood,stepover. Just went from 8% to 5% and what a difference- no sanding. Pick up a few of these- If you don't like them, I'll personally repay you, my word.http://www.carbideplus.com/Carbide_6...333-001050.htm

[Brady Watson]

This is ShopBot #5...new ones anyway

I scanned this a few years back and just never got around to carving it. The original is around 3x2' - which takes a bit more thought to pull off than just super-gluing some tablesaw cut offs together like I did with this little one.

It took about 5hrs total. Carpet taped down - 1/16" end mill profile cut & scrap removed. 1/16" 3D roughing @ 2,1; 1/32" ball end mill semi-finishing pass @ 35% SO, 1,1; 1/64" ball end mill @ 10% SO, 0.7,0.7 IPS. When you get down to cat whisker sized bits, you have to take care to properly clear out. Just the 1/16" roughing would not be adequate for 1/64" finishing. All tools from Harvey.

This wasn't scaled down for any other reason than to gauge resolution on this machine. It is faster & crisper than a rack & pinion machine with a lot more forgiveness with VR settings - although I had to tweak those a little. When you get down to this level of detail, the wood grain starts to influence the cut because they are pretty big compared to the diameter of the finishing tool. There is detail on this piece around the same size as the wood strands. It's pretty interesting.

I've done micro-carving on my larger tools and it takes some effort and deliberate action to get good results when the bit is that small. You cannot even hear it cut - so you have to LOOK to see if the bit is still intact. I'm going to try some smaller bits on this tool as well maybe 1/2 this size, like .005" diameter ball and see how that works out. You still have to take care because they are so delicate - and expensive @ about $50 ea.

-B

PS - It was all done in Aspire

[scottp55]

"Exploring new worlds---Going where no man has gone before"

[rb99]

Maybe your dentist has some bits he/she could give you?

[Joe Porter]

How do you Z-zero a bit that small? Can you do a regular C-2? ...joe

[Brady Watson]

Yep...already got it covered on the dental bits & even the 400,000 dental drill You can do some amazing things with that thing.

There is no problem with a regular old C2 with the Zzero plate. I don't slow down speeds or anything like that. Works fine. As long as your spindle/router is dead square to the table, there shouldn't be any side force & all pressure will be on the center of the bit. It's side loads from the router moving on an angle that snaps tiny bits.

-B

[Joe Porter]

That's something I really need to do, is go over my machine (BT 32) and check out all the dimensions for square, etc. I have had the machine for 5 yrs. and it has run well right out of the box. But, maybe I am just being complacent. Thanks for all your input in maintenance and maybe I should start putting it to use....joe