Wooden Comb

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Chase

My goatee is getting pretty long and is need of some combing. I could buy a regular comb for a few bucks, or I could spend hours making my own. Is it even really a choice?!

Looking at what others have done, the table saw seems to be a popular choice for making the tines. I figured a 1/8″ mill bit would do a pretty decent job, so lets mill this puppy.

I created a basic low profile pick that fit on some thinner scrap walnut I had available. I really like how it looks with the lighter sapwood on the one edge. A relief of half the thickness let me easily inlay some maple. The grain runs counter to the walnut for strength and is proud a bit to help with holding. It took a pile of sanding to point the ends of the tines. A power sander made it pretty quick, but manual sanding is completely possible. After glue-up and sanding I gave it all a coating of spray lacquer.

So far my goatee is happy with it. A little oil and a comb post-shower seems to make it lot more manageable. After all, there is nothing worse than a bad beard day!

8in Cedar Planter Boxes

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Chase

We have been bringing home a ton of plants this spring. Most of them are even still alive too! Having the flower bed areas covered in rocks lets us do all sorts of potted plants. Pots get expensive and often aren’t big enough, so I decided to make some customized cedar planters. First grab a pile of cedar and start cutting.

I cut 8in boards to 24in length and made some 8in end caps. It turns out a cedar 2×4 is actually 2 inches by 4 inches. When you rip them in half they are still a decent chunk of wood. I took the fronts of each box and milled an “H” into it.

A touch of spray paint highlighted the letters nicely. I used a hand plane to remove the excess spray. The box construction is pretty simple. I screwed the long segments together and tied the sides and ends together through the 2×2 chunks.

With cedar wood, epoxy covered screws and a coating of thompson’s water seal, they should last a while. I moved our two basil plants into one box. The one on the left was in a plastic pot that never drained well.

For the other boxes I had help picking out the plants. Looking around the plant section at lowes I found a pile of bees on the mexican heather. They seemed to whisper, “pick this one!”

So mexican heather for us!

Lastly, as I was standing in the checkout line a monarch butterfly was making a visit to a pile of scarlet milkweed near by. That came home with me too. By the time I got around to planting it was looking a little sad. Hopefully regular watering will perk it back up.

The 8″ boxes are a decent medium size. They totaled about 20 bucks a piece for the materials. Next I will probably make a set with doubled or tripled up 6″ boards.

“No Mites” Stencil

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Chase

I have been trying to make spray paint stencils with my swivel cutter for a while. It isn’t going well. Not sure if there are tricks to clean cutting, or if my setup needs improvement. Probably both. Instead I decided to go a different direction and use hardboard (sometimes called masonite) to mill spray stencils instead. It is cheap, mills well, except for a bit of fuzz at the edges, and holds flat against the spray surface.

Our bees are doing well and they look really healthy. They are kicking so much butt, in fact, that the hive deserves some decorations. How about a nice “NO MITES!” sign. For anyone not familiar with mites and bees, look up varroa mites if you dare. They are horrible creatures that parasite honey bees.

I ran into a few small stencil problems. To do the NO cross out, I had to break up the spray job. You mill out the areas for the paint to go through, and there would be two floating half circles if I did that. Instead I milled most of the shape, but left some edging to hold it all together.

I thought this was a great solution! Spray the mite down, spray part of the circle, then just rotate, line everything up, and spray again. Apparently the cross portion isn’t symmetric. I must have eye balled it in the software. When you rotate, not everything lined up perfectly, sooooo I kind of fudged it.

When you stand back a bit, everything looks pretty good, but I need to work more on my spray technique. Lets just say I didn’t exactly do a lot of vandalism in my youth. Does that banksy guy offer classes? At least the mite turned out reasonably well.

CNC Mill Ring Light

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Chase

There is a warm and fuzzy feeling that accompanies using my mill to make something for my mill. Not quite a self replicating machine, but it helps make itself better. I finally figured a ring light design I like.

I have made a number of different test parts and played with a few different LEDs before I settled on some LED dome light replacements. They are from amazon. They have 4 surface mount LEDs with a resistor built in, and are supplied with 12V. The metal cones are meant to go into a car’s dome light receptacle. I removed the cones with a soldering iron to leave a flat solder pads.

I milled a few test pieces and settled on a design that was compact but allowed enough room for the lights. The mill did a fantastic job on 1/2″ plywood. Once cut out I popped a quick hole in each pocket for the wires and glued the lights down. A quick spritz of yellow paint will help it blend in with my dewalt spindle.

Milled 1/2″ Plywood

LEDs epoxied in

Top side

Quick spray of yellow

It goes right above the bit area, and two screws coming in from either end help hold it in place. I gathered the red and black wires to a single connector each. They connect to a set of wires that run up to the 12V that powers the under-mill lighting I installed a while back.

I could fit more lights in if I wanted, but the 4 “bulbs” look great. Very bright and easy to see what is going on. The camera made it look a little blinding, but it is not.

I ❤ my mill!

Under-Mill Lighting

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Chase

I shot some GoPro video a week or two back on my mill. It was tough to get enough lighting over there. That area of my shop just isn’t really well lit. I could crawl up in the attic and try to wire another light, but I will probably move the mill before too long. In comes LED light strips. I picked some up to play with a while back and hadn’t gotten around to using them. They are strips that are largely made of copper foil, the resisters are already installed, and you can cut it every few inches to the length you want.

These narrow strips will fit perfectly under the rails used in my mill’s gantry system. You can little double headed clip-on connectors to link multiple segments together or make turns. I cut the one end off and used them to splice in power. They have springy tabs that are supposed to connect to the round pads. I found their connectivity wasn’t very solid, so I shored it up with solder. Now vibration and movement shouldn’t be a problem.

With all the connectors soldered and everything cut to length I pulled the backing off and carefully applied it to the underside of all my rail sections. For the connector end I wrapped a zip tie around them so that any tugs on the cable wouldn’t rip the lighting off. Everything got wired up in parallel to a 12V supply I bought from a similar amazon vendor. The results are pretty good.

My camera was in full manual mode, so what you see is what you get. One strip went under each Y rail (front to back) and I was able to sneak two under the X rail (left to right). This doesn’t completely fix my lighting problems, but it feels a lot better work around the mill. I will probably come up with some kind of ring light to give really good direct lighting lighting on the bit.

The total cost was about 25 bucks. I bought a lot bigger power supply than I needed so I can add as many lights as I want. About half the reel and a pile of connectors are left over. If I ever make an enclosure It will probably get gobs of this strip lighting.

Loc-Line Vacuum Upgrade

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Chase

One of the early upgrades I added to my mill was a dust shoe. It was a copy of a common design in the shapeoko community. It works, but I have issues with it. The design relies on a skirt, which is never the length you want and doesn’t work well with small parts and height changes. The other issue I have is that you can never see what is going on. Some have created designs with clear materials, but those will get dusty fast. Lastly the design restricts access to the collet locker. It makes bit changing a pain. In comes my savior, Loc-Line. First a picture of the finished product so we are all on the same page. They sell 3/4″ Loc-Line for a reasonable price on amazon. I don’t recommend it however. The stuff has a large internal diameter, but the bend radius is not tight. I made an early version of this with the 3/4″ stuff and just couldn’t ever get the nozzle positioned how I wanted. Instead I recommend this 1/2″ kit from amazon. It comes with 12 segments, 3 different nozzle diameters, and two threaded NPT adapters. One is 1/2″ NPT and I think the other is 3/8″. I used two kits to outfit my mill.

Now is one of the many times I really really want a 3D printer. I could print a perfect adapter to go from my tapered shop vacuum hose line to these Loc-Line threaded adapters. Also a 3D printer would let you print all manner of nozzles. Having some be flat bottomed or concave to sit around the bit would be ideal. Alas I have no 3D printer, but luckily PVC piping got me there. My shop vac line fits reasonably well into a 1″ PVC coupler, so I started with that. I found a great tee to go from 1″ to 3/4″ pipe, and a set of 3/4″ plugs with internal 1/2″ NPT pipe threads. Loc-Line threaded adapters go into those. Take a look:

1″ coupler into 1″ tee with 3/4″ sides

Plugs installed with 1/2″ NPT threads

Painted with Loc-Line adapters installed

Just for the fun of it I went ahead and painted the PVC tee blue. Why not add some color to life. A shaped piece of wood conforms to the spindle on one side and the PVC on the other, and a hose clamp holds it all together. I forgot to take a picture, but the SVG profile is below and you can see it painted red in the finished shot. Looks stylish, has a lot of adjustability, easy to see what is happening, and easy bit access. Does it suck though? I shot some video while finding out. First I started by pocketing 1.2″ diameter hole as an easy test. Next I moved onto a deep profile cutout to see if it could suck debris from the bottom of a trench. As a bonus the nozzles hit the work surface. Being flexible they moved and didn’t interrupt the mill. I will probably chew up nozzles over time, but they are cheap enough. If I had a printer I could make my own on demand! Someday. Anywho, video time.

GoPro Zip-Tie and Base Mount

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Chase

When I was out in California I played around with the GoPro enough to know that I needed a few more accessories. The first would be a decent base. That plastic square that comes with the camera is nice, but it slides around and is bigger than it needs to be. A sturdy non-skid base would be nice.

I picked up a rotating time lapse thing from amazon. It winds up like an egg timer, and slowly rotates while you take time lapse photos. It is a pretty sweet toy, but the base is slick, and the item itself is light. That makes the whole thing top-heavy and likely to slide if what it is sitting on isn’t perfectly stable.

Two birds? One stone! Enter my new default base!

It may not look like much, but the 1/4-20 stud sticking out of the top will screw into my drift lapse base, and with a tripod mount, I can stick my GoPro directly to it.

The body is oak with black paint. I used the mill to cut out the shape and do the counterbore for a hammer in threaded insert. A short cut section of all thread epoxied in provides a short stud. Hot glue holds the drawer liner gripper material.

Zip Tie mount

Zip ties can attach just about anything to just about anything else. Why not use them to attach a GoPro to just about anything else? Well, first you need a good zip tie mount! I milled oak to accept an adhesive mount. Two grooves allow zip ties to run cross to the camera orientation. I rounded the edges of the zip tie channels by sawing and chiseling the corners.

Post milling

Mount goes right in

Saw cut at an angle

chisel out a relief

I suspect most things I tie this to will be roundish. A little sanding on the bottom creates a curved relief. Peel and stick sand paper on the bottom should help it stay still. Lastly, I wasn’t sure how well the 3M stuff would stick to wood, so I gave it a little 2 part epoxy at the edges.

Peel and stick sandpaper

Adhered and epoxied in place

I am really excited how this one turned out. I need something to test it out with… how about this? Spray paint GoPro anyone? Oh well, it illustrates the point.

Shapeoko Z-Knob

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Chase

I have been wanting a Z-knob for my shapeoko for a while. Moving that axis up and down by hand is a huge pain. I typically do it with my xbox controller run via software but the unit isn’t always on, and it is often faster to turn the motors off and rough things in by hand. Why not make one?

I generated a gear pattern in inkscape and overlaid a circle that would cut out most of the depth of the teeth. I only wanted some small knobs sticking out for grip. There are probably better ways to do it, but I am still not an inkscape guru. The results were pretty cool though!

Upside Down

Right Side Up

The plan was to drill horizontally through that beefy shaft, and tap it for a number 10 set screw. I tried to press the knob onto the shaft of my NEMA 23 Z-motor and it wouldn’t go. I reamed it out a tiny bit with a 1/4″ bit and tried again. Once I finally managed to press it into position I realized I could stop. Instead of going through with a set screw, I should stop. The press fit turned out to be really good. I turn off all the motors and it did a bang up job moving the stage up and down. Success came early!

Cricut Cutter Adaptation

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Chase

I have been trying to adapt a swivel cutter to my Shapeoko for months. Not constantly, but I have been making lots of little attempts. Swivel cutters enable you to easily cut small thin materials with CNC regularity and precision. Paper, plastic and foam sheets, stickers, and hopefully leather.

I started by trying to chuck the swivel cutter directly into my spindle. The spindle spins fairly freely on its own, and is already well attached to my Z-axis. Most of that previous statement turned out to be true. The spinning part wasn’t good enough as it turns out. The blade didn’t rotate, it just grabbed.

The cutter has a wide flat head where the blade sticks out. This helps keep the material stuck down and should prevent puckering. Also, the blade spins much more freely in the cutter than in the spindle. So ditch that idea, I really have to hold this thing somehow. Time to build a support. I went through a few iterations of holders till I came up with this version. I wouldn’t call it perfect, but I think this will keep me going for a while. The “square” cutout does a great job of holding the round cricut head once I saw cut it in half.

Machined delrin pieces

Blue cricut head in its holder

I machined 1/2″ delrin to hold the cricut head and attach to a 3/4″ down bar. All the screws were #10-24s with a counterbore. it made for a cleaner look and keeps the screw heads from interfering with anything. I attached it to my shapeoko Z-head using two tapped screws into the aluminum bracket that holds my spindle, and two wood screws into the wood version of that bracket I made. Attaching it to the side lets me keep the spindle in place. Four screws to add or remove any time I want to use the swivel cutter.

Once everything was attached I made a simple circle with the follow patch operation from maker cam. It cut well, but I held everything by hand. My fingers slipped a little and the circle had a zag in the side of it.

The blade works well, but the clamp doesn’t. Time to use the little grey cells! I found a big 16gauge plate of metal, and stuck it under my cutting mat. Magnets did a good job of holding the paper while keeping a low profile.

Now that is a pretty decent looking circle. I like it, lets move on to something more complicated and see if the swivel cutter can keep up. If you search “fancy rectangles” you get a lot of great results.

Another small tear where the magnets didn’t hold well enough. I am getting some monster half inch ones on order. Until then my clamping is going to be a little dodgy. I used the same pattern to cut out some fancy rectangles from a sheet of vinyl chalkboard material. Now I can make custom labeling stickers for anything I want.

Paper CHECK! Vinyl stickers CHECK! I was feeling confident and went on to leather cutting. It didn’t turn out well. The blade can protrude far enough to get through the leather, but my Shapeoko lacks the power to drag it through. Trying to do multiple passes didn’t work out well either. The machine lifted after each pass and tried pulling the blade out. The blade is only held in with a small magnet, so any pulling force will pluck it out. The leather gripped it well enough to partially remove the blade. When it tried to move the blade was stuck and it ended up breaking the tip off.

My best results scored the leather but did not cut through. I will order more blades and try again, but it doesn’t look good for leather.

Inlay Success (almost)

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Chase

I think I finally finished my inlay journey. See previous attempts here, here and here. I made two different wooden projects with inlay, and aside from leaving out one important step, they turned out well. The projects are my the “Cube Sweet Cube” signs that I have attempted to make over and over again, and a baseball bat trophy thing for my little cousin. He is into tee ball, and has some game winning balls to display.

I milled out a deeper pocket (0.05″) and instead of filling it completely with paint, which didn’t go well, just tried to coat the inside surfaces with paint. Thinning the acrylic with a little water helped it coat evenly.

The results were pretty good, the color was consistent, there wasn’t a voiding issue, and the surface planed clean really quickly and easily. This was due to the very thin layer of paint on top. The only thing that went wrong was a little bleeding into the grain. It is worse on the red than the black. The oak didn’t do this as bad as the pine did. I was lazy and didn’t do any sealing, so I only have myself to blame. No we know that is important!

Final Procedure

Mill text pocket with either flat or round bottom mill to at least 0.05″ deep.
Spray area with a sealer such as spray lacquer. It is cheap and dries quickly.
Mix desired acrylic paint color with a small bit of water to make it spread easily.
Let dry overnight and either sand or plane off excess paint on top.

Trophy Bat

I used the shapeoko to mill out the somewhat complex area around the handle. I could have cut this with drill bit and band saw, but this was quick and came out really well. I don’t have enough travel to do the whole thing, so I finished the rest of it with my bandsaw. A forstner bit made pockets for holding the balls, and a quick trip around the router made a nice round over.

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