F1 In School and Indexer

[Savoy]

I'm a teacher (Project Lead the Way - Intro to Engineering) using F1 in Schools - CO2 cars - projects in my course.

I have the Shobot Desktop use use for TONS of different projects but I haven't used the Indexer other than a few projects needing symmetric round parts - so I know the basics for using our 3" indexer.

I'm HOPING we can use the Destop/indexer to meet the CNC requirement of the competition so I don't have to get a different machine - I really love my SP

We are required to use a pre-cut (official) block which was Balsa previously, but is a type of plastic starting next year. The dimensions are here:

f1_block.jpg

As you can see, this is a square block!
About 2.5" x 3" x 8" long

The model I'm trying to chunch out looks like this:

f1_body.jpg

Is this even possible?

Thanks for any tips and suggestions you might have for me!

- Les

[Savoy]

... Humm, its been a few days, not looking too good for us to use the indexer.
I'm still researching though - any tips are appreciated!

- Savoy/Les

[waynelocke]

You could do most of it on the indexer. What software do you have? You might be better off doing a 2or 4 sided machining strategy. The rear airfoil would probably be a problem.

[Kyle Stapleton]

I have been plan running some CO2 cars on ours and I plan on using 2/4 sided machining.

[Savoy]

You could do most of it on the indexer. What software do you have? You might be better off doing a 2or 4 sided machining strategy. The rear airfoil would probably be a problem.

That is what I'm hoping (having the indexer do most of the work) - I'm using Aspire 8.

[Gary Campbell]

Savoy...
Do you have a 3D model for the car body? That would be the first step. That design can be cut, but with some difficulty. It appears that it may be best cut affixed to the rotary via an arbor. Which creates a new set of problems for the front of the car as it will be below the axial center and Aspire will not like that.

Your project can be cut, but it not going to be an easy one, especially if its a first 3D on rotary project.

[Savoy]

Savoy...
Do you have a 3D model for the car body? That would be the first step. That design can be cut, but with some difficulty. ...

Yep... have the body modeled in AutoDesk Inventor which I can bring into Aspire as a model. I'll see if I can fine a way to upload the files here so you can see it the actual model. Here is a screen shot of it though.

F1_Model.jpg

Looks like I'll encourage them to go with the 2-sided cut. We have to do some of this on the CNC machine to meet the competition requirements for F1 in Schools.

[Gary Campbell]

Savoy...
Do you have any CAM abilities from Autodesk? The reason that I ask, is that you could use Aspire or VCPro to Cut the model, but it would involve some trickery to keep the portions you need to cut above the zero plane, which would be the axial center in most cases. You might also look at Cut3D as it supports 4 sided machining, albeit without the rotation of the indexer, which you could do easily from the keyboard.

[Savoy]

Thanks for the tips Gary.

I'm going to have to use 2-sided through Aspire. I have what comes with the shopbot and a full copy of Aspire 8 so I'm going to try and pull it off with that.

An example of the model we are going to try and tool is attached here. I think 2-side cuts will work.. I'll just need to be careful when pulling it in (I'll have to align it center and to the back of the block where my CO2 hole is pre-cut).

I'm working through the videos on 2-sided cuts now - and I'll try a few cuts with pine blocks over the weekend and see how it goes

[Savoy]

Thanks for all the tips... I've learned a lot about the indexer and have thought of a lot of cool future projects to use with it, but I'm going to go with two-sided milling for this project. I've already made the jig that will hold the pieces (it's an official blank for this competition).
Thanks and for the encouragement and support! - Savoy/Les