VCarved buttons

[barrowj]

Scott, this may be a dumb idea or you have already thought about it. Why don't you do a circle for the vacuum leaving the area where you drill through solid, does that make sense?

Joe

[scottp55]

Not dumb at all Joe. But I'll barely be skimming the HDPE to make it perfectly flat, then cut the grid and then the Cover Sheet Gasket covers the top of the channel. So substrate has to be totally flush.
JUST started to wrap my brain around it yesterday when I saw Georges file. I'll probably "Get" it when I draw it out in VCP. "Number than a Hake" when it comes to this stuff so just following the instructions

[David Iannone]

When you get to that point of playing with the job specific jig, if its still hard to hold down the part with vacuum, try using transfer tape / masking tape on the back of each slab of wood, then turn on vacuum, and cut through. The tape should help the vacuum hold. That is if the tape will stick to the wood. Then the transfer tape will come right off after no problem.

I have never tried to hold something that small though.

Dave

[scottp55]

Thanks Dave,
Using fairly dense woods, and hoping by sanding to 320G plus a Very dilute lacquer(like I was using to prevent carpet tape residue sticking--worked great for a clean release if you went slow) will prevent too much permeability loss. I'd need a medium? tack 4" wide tape as a few of the boards(usually self resawn maple, walnut) have a slight cup I need to pull flat.
May have to play with cutout toolpaths a little, have it now so I'm leaving .01" onionskin, and then a second final pass .015" lower to cut out completely.

[scottp55]

Purpleheart Friday and the square Bloodwoods finished at 5:30
Nice to cut again
Yep, Buttons again
scott

[scottp55]

First proto of this one.
Usually do individuals to test toolpath/cutter strategy, but 60 buttons on a 4X24" wanted slightly better estimate of cutting time so did 10 at a whack and chose Hard Maple as it's the worst case for Fuzzies.
Life interfered and it was on the machine off and on for 4 DAYS
Forgot to wipe Maple with denatured or tack rag prior to carpet tape(DID wipe Padauk and NOT lifting at all), so got some lifting and it affected my clean up pass 2 days later(tried speeds up to 3.5,2,17K to speed it up---Z speed was most effective as well as lowering safeZ to .15 and .015"Z2)
As usual I changed the thickness(.185") at the last minute AFTER nesting and as I was cutting out with a Profile/Outside line with a Pointed Round Over it mucked me up and had to add an offset for the cutout.
Need to go back to 1 button/resize boundary vector and renest/ and plug in best quality setting out of the six.
Kinda like the top one where I called out a Kyocera 30 degree engraving, BUT used the 60 degree to make the tiny interweave cut deeper without having to play with Z Nudging(it won't be cut by me and trying to keep it simple for Northern Desktop), and was trying to avoid changing the design as it cuts beautifully in any size above this, but was so shallow in spots that 320G would have erased a lot.
All Kyoceras from Drillman1 on Ebay(Oops top row on right was Onsrud .25"D 60 degree engraving)--first try with his 1/16"2Flute and I like it! Cutout was Whiteside .5"D .25"R Pointed RoundOver.
Rambling,
scott
OH! Please don't notice the Digger Original file was referenced to spoilboard so I could just swap out the backer boards and do 6 at a time before changing bits, BUT 3 coats of sanding sealer and 2 of brushing lacquer gave me .015" difference in thickness and I spaced a final dimensioning pass, so I swapped to referencing from the top of material and forgot to save ONE recalculated toolpath at the end of a 12 hour day on the fly!!
It didn't break the 1/8" 60, but for the life of me I don't know why

[scottp55]

5 days mucking around (on and off) in Maple
3 hours today in Padauk
Ship the file off and start another one
scott

[Bob Eustace]

Thanks Dave,
Using fairly dense woods, and hoping by sanding to 320G plus a Very dilute lacquer(like I was using to prevent carpet tape residue sticking--worked great for a clean release if you went slow) will prevent too much permeability loss. I'd need a medium? tack 4" wide tape as a few of the boards(usually self resawn maple, walnut) have a slight cup I need to pull flat.
May have to play with cutout toolpaths a little, have it now so I'm leaving .01" onionskin, and then a second final pass .015" lower to cut out completely.

Scott the double sided blue Duck brand tape 1 1/4" leaves zero residue. You get it from Amazon - $8.35. Your tea tree suggestion for ants worked a treat. The little blighters hate the stuff! Thanks!

[scottp55]

Glad upside down ants Hate it too Bob !
Having Very good luck with Ace Hardware 2" Fiberglass reinforced Heavy Duty now, and just sanding backs of Padauk/Bloodwood/Purpleheart to 320G and giving a quick swipe with denatured. Held a piece of Padauk that had been surfaced to .185" for 5 days with no lifting before and during cut and good release after Maple,Walnut,Cherry still giving that super thin Lacquer wash to stop residue.
Funny(OR NOT!!), Nearest Ace Hardware to Kirk is 40 miles so I was looking for a tape he could Amazon to his doorstep and got a roll of THIS size Duck Brand.....HATE IT, after 20 minutes with decent fingernails I got this at both ends and finally ripped it off (Clean...No residue off lacquered backer) and Chucked it!!! Stuff seemed to like to stick to the paper as much or more than the Board!
Think I remember someone (Brady?), mentioning this but I spaced it when ordering
Maybe I got a bad roll, but will never buy 2.44" again!! Shop was 65F and roll had been in 70F house.
I liked the tack and the release on the board though. Just HATED the paper backing.
Wonder if it was just me? Or is there a trick to it I don't need for Ace brand?
Did I buy the wrong type?
Thanks,
scott

[scottp55]

Bloodwood Proto design cut Tuesday with Dad.
Need to re-orient Button 90 degrees so Points on Fleur run more with the grain to keep the "tips" supported.
Getting good pocket finish at 6% stepover with Kyocera .125" 45degree from Drillman1 in 1 slower Pass(.05"), than faster first pass and then a second speed pass(Probably wood movement and second pass was 2,1 so ANY cutting resulted in lower quality?).
Need to re-do Celtic files if it's the same case in Maple,B Walnut and get same quality.
Save a LOT of time, as does increased stepover---Going to see if I can get away with 7-8% stepover today.
Still Tweaking and may Finally dare changing VR's today thanks to Brady's article.
Oh, Finally getting production files referenced to BOTTOM of Backer Boards...Now IF I can only remember EVERY time to change the little red dot on material set-up to the BOTTOM of material
Drove TWO 1/8" bits into the backers in TWO days!!!
Yes Desktop can lose position!!
Second time I forgot to C3 as well as C2 and X,Y were about 1.5" off and I didn't catch it because it was a first run.
VERY interesting design in B Walnut....Good thing we needed samples for Dad to play with Vibratory Tumbler
scott
Also found out I can BOG OUT Desktop spindle! Normally cut Ocooch .25" stock to dimension (.2"), but ran the same file for some shop cut blanks that were 3/8" thick. So instead of cutting .03" at 2.4,.5,12K with a 1.25" Whiteside Mortising bit, First pass was .155" in Maple at same setting.....5" ramp and she TOTALLY stalled out about 12" into cut. Changed to 1.5,.5,13K file and no problems.
NOW a separate file for the table sawed resaw material.