Doing Production Runs

[genek]

People ask me how I get so much work done. It is simple I do production runs. I have a grid cut into my shop bot bed (1/4 inch grove down about 1/2 of the dept of the bed. These I slide in scrap strips of 1/4 ply wood to align my boards. Saved in a file I have a grid that is laid out to handle 6- six inch wide boards.

When I am setting up a pattern I open the grid and arrange my drawings to fit on my grid. where the wood will lay. I find it easier to do a drawing of the board, the length and width I need and lay out my patterns, then simple copy and paste them where they need to be. After I have the grid laid out with all of my drawings I erase the fake boards and the grid.

when I am ready to lay out my boards, I put some scrape 1/4 plywood in the groves then slide the boards against the strips . (note the first board is aligned with the edge of the bed) Then I take strips of scrap wood and screw the edges of the boards in place. I remove the line up strips and zero the machine and start running product. Most days the cnc cuts all day, some days it does two or three runs. Depends on the cutting time. While the cnc is running I am sanding or doing other work. here is my lay out grid if you would like to use it... or you can design a grid that works best for you. I use two styles of grid. one is full length and one is two have lengths. That way I can load two sets of product while one is cutting I can off load the first and re-load it and vice verse24830.

[tri4sale]

Nice idea, like to see some pics of setup you described.

[genek]

Nice idea, like to see some pics of setup you described. When I get back to the shop will take some.. Taking some time off to watch after my dad.. His last sister who he is very close to, had a stroke last night. I am staying with him in case she passes so I can break it to him and be able to take care of him... he is 89 years old.. his sister is 101.. She and dad were real close... they have watched U.K. Play basket ball ever since they started showing them on tv. neither of them have miss more than five games.

[genek]

I am glad I have on star.. I can use it for wifi... lol.. dad does not have internet here. I would go stalk raving mad with out internet.. lol
may do more posting to keep busy while visiting with him.

[barrowj]

I too would like to see pics if you don't mind, haven't started doing any real production work on mine yet, still dealing with a day job. I hope to retire this year or next then will work on the bot more.

Joe

[harryball]

I used this same slot with 1/4" material for a couple of years but now favor using 3/16" dowels.
For full sheet and square sheet work from the x=0 y=0 origin, I bore small holes in the spoil board at points along the x= -3/32 and y= -3/32 lines. I insert short 3/16" pcs of dowel rod so they stick up about 1/4". I can then load right to the origin and know it is square and aligned.

When working out on the table, I can do the same thing where needed in multiple places. I know where those spots are in relation to the origin and I can mark an origin for each location if desired.

What I like about the dowel pins...
irregular or warped lumber can sit against them without rocking
I can pull the dowel out and run the spoil board as normal the small holes don't present a problem for the vacs
I can plane off the dowel and leave it in place as a patch if desired.
When close to the edge of the spoil board (my x and y registration marks) they are less likely to break off an edge
If I screw up and hit one with a bit, doesn't even notice it was there where with the 1/4" board I might grind along the length of it.
I can place one manually if desired using a 3/16" drill bit and a hand drill
Less material, easy to cut new dowel pins quickly.

What I don't like about the dowel...
You can't really include it as part of your hold down plan. They will take a lot of force, but not as much as the 1/4" paddles and certainly not for as much area.
They are harder to pull out when done.
If you shave one off by accident, you'll have to drill it because you probably won't be able to extract it as easily as a chewed up paddle.

Dowels or paddles, Eugene is right, it's a great way to get your production running sheet after sheet or board after board.

/RB

[genek]

Thanks for posting Harry, I was beginning to think I was the only one that had a lay out system.

[bleeth]

Eugene: You can take your master grid template drawing and put the grid vectors on a layer called "grid" or "layout" or something and make them a different color.
Then when you position your pattern drawings you can have them on their own layer. In Aspire (or Artcam) you can turn off the visibility of the layer so you don't have to erase it.
In your various patterns you can also make vectors that get different toolpath operations, like area clear and cutout part have different vector layer names. Makes creating toolpaths a breeze.
Although I mostly cut full sheets into cabinet parts so don't need a layout as you do, Each cabinet has at least 3 different toolpaths. So I use vector layers named drill, dado, and cutout for the 3 basic ones and put the lines for each cabinet in the appropriate layer before I array them. When I do the drill toolpath for the sheet I select "drill" in a vector association box for creating the toolpath and the program only drills circles in that layer. Then the same system for the dado and the same for cutout. I never have to select individual vectors for toolpathing this way. My saved cabinet templates are set up with the layers so I can copy and paste, block copy, etc what I need to nest the sheet and then open the toolpath template and set up the whole job quite quickly. I've matched my method against those using cab programs and I get as many parts cut in a day as any of them and program a job just as quickly. I also use the software's ability to have many sheets in one model to generate all the cabinets for one job in one model and that is really when the vector layers and association makes getting it from design to the bot fast.