difalkner

They are really quite handy tools. You can very easily let the CNC dominate your woodworking and greatly shift your mindset to nothing but CNC work, but I prefer to just use it as another tool in the shop. There are some pieces we sell on Etsy and these designs have come about because we have a CNC. But there are others where the CNC just makes the job quicker, easier, and therefore more profitable - just a better tool for the job. Sometimes I use the CNC for very simple tasks and sometimes the engineering side of me takes over and manipulating the work piece on the spoilboard coupled with multiple bit changes begins to look like a choreographed work of art (or nightmare )! Below is a simple cut I made yesterday for our mailman. He has a CarveWright machine and engraved a sheet of acrylic but the engraving didn't come out like he wanted, so he asked me to just cut the outer circle. It took all of 5 minutes to draw it up in Fusion 360 and generate the G-code. Then I found center of the circle and used carpet tape to hold the circle and clamps to hold the entire piece. The cut took about 30 seconds. In this case the CNC was the perfect tool for the job, far better result than if I had used the bandsaw or rigged a way to cut this with a hand held router. David

Thanks, Guys! I know what you mean, Coop. I don't have a lathe but I really like seeing what those guys turn. And they use bandsaws, table saws, planers, joiners, miter saws, etc. to get that piece to work on the lathe. Same with the CNC for me - it's just another tool in the shop. I turn it on, use it, turn it off, and then move on to the next tool in the lineup. Sometimes it's the final step and sometimes it's just one tool of many to get to the final project completion. David

Those look really nice, Kev! The Curly Maple is perfect against the Bubinga. Good job. I just finished a large Walnut end grain Lazy Susan and they're cool to do. David

When I make cutting boards, even 2" thick boards, I have to be careful how I store them while they're in the process and stages of construction. At night or if I move on to other projects while glue is drying on the cutting board(s) I stand them on edge and out of the way. My table saw extension is unfinished MDF and I have found that it's safe to leave a cutting board lying flat on that surface but I still don't like doing it for more than a few hours. Our shop is climate controlled so I don't have huge humidity swings and don't usually have issues with end grain work cupping but if it has just been glued and not yet surfaced it's still subject to the moisture in the glue and will likely move, so that's why I stand them on edge. David

From page 18 of the SuperMax 19/38 manual - NOTE: TENSION ROLLER PRESSURE WARNING SIGNS It is important to pay attention to the tension roller pressure because too little pressure can result in slippage of stock on conveyor belt and kick back. Too much tension can cause snipe when sanding. I have mine set about as loose as they can go, fwiw. David

Not sure, Brendon, but I've read many times about others getting it on theirs (SuperMax and other brands, as well). It's mentioned in the SuperMax manual and they tell you how to set the pressure rollers but I still get it, so I've learned how to get around it with sacrificial boards. David

For those of you who use a drum sander you know that sometimes you'll get snipe just like on a planer. The quick trick to eliminating that is just like with a planer - use a sacrificial board in front of and behind the work piece. Now, that's all fine and dandy if you have straight edges on your work piece but if it's oddly shaped or round, then what do you do? Well, what I do is save the cut-offs from the work piece. They're the same thickness and should fit pretty closely to run in front of and behind the target work piece. A few weeks ago I cut a large Lazy Susan and didn't allow enough on my scrap pieces to use them on the drum sander. What I ended up with was a very beautiful Walnut Lazy Susan but at the correct angle, and if you knew what to look for, you could see some very faint snipe. I didn't take a photo but I could see it. So when I made this even thicker Walnut cutting board I was determined to not fall into that trap again. My cut-offs were large enough to go in front of and behind the cutting board and what I ended up with is a perfectly flat 18" round surface. I cut the scrap pieces down to where they fit just inside the width of our 19/38 drum sander and made sure to feed them in before and after the cutting board on each pass of each grit from 120/150/220. I've also done this with angled pieces where the leading edge is angled relative to the grain direction and it truly makes a difference. David

Ditto on the Walnut. Looks like some I just bought. David

I'll also chime in and welcome you to the forum, Adam! We'd love to see some photos of your work, assuming you can show them. I regularly spray Nitrocellulose lacquer, do French polish, and have done some gold leaf overlay. Past that I don't know much at all so count me in the group that is eager to learn. David

We have the HF unit with Wynn 0.5 micron filter and it has worked well for us. I only run one machine at a time and move a 20' clear hose to each machine as needed. I have overhead ducting going to the CNC and just switch out the hoses at the DC when needed. However, the '2'HP motor is right at the edge of what most household 120V 15A circuits will handle and while ours works ok I have read many times of breakers tripping. Just putting in a 20A breaker isn't smart if the wiring in the wall wasn't designed for that load. I would rather have all 240V equipment in the shop and most of ours is, but the budget at the time dictated getting the HF with discount coupon. I upgraded to the Wynn filter a year later and it is far, far better than the 5 micron bag that comes with the unit. If I had it to do over I would look at the Grizzly if for no other reason than I could run it on 240V. But at this point I'll keep using the HF until it dies. David

I have a couple that I'm still deciding what I want to do with but I'll probably do something similar to what Coop did and just soften the edge and straight cuts. David

Closer to the 0.001" to 0.002", Mark, when I'm doing smaller things like guitar bridges out of East Indian Rosewood or Ebony. On larger items, like Baltic Birch Longworth chucks, it's probably in the 0.005" to 0.010" range although I can only check accurately out to 6" with my dial calipers. The last time I checked at 6" it was within 0.003" to no more than 0.004", depending on what I'm cutting. Harder woods like Walnut hold to tighter tolerances where the softer woods tend to spring back after the bit passes making it harder not only to hold tolerance but to check measurements. David

Here's the video - David

Absolutely! David

Yes, definitely!! Did I mean to do that? Absolutely NOT!! I have made several changes to the toolpath profile for cutting the Longworth chucks and all for the better. When I started cutting them 100 chucks and almost a year ago the feed was 125 ipm, 18k rpm, 0.125" depth of cut, with a 1/4" downcut spiral bit. These chucks are 1/2" Baltic Birch and I knew this was conservative but I tend to stay on that side. I have slowly crept the speed up to where I am now cutting chucks at 250 ipm and all the other specs are the same except depth of cut is now 0.2". When I opened the file for the 16" chuck I realized it was still at 200 ipm for the outer profile, with tabs, so I changed it to 250 ipm. Or so I thought... What I actually did was replace the '2' with '250' and didn't delete the extra '00'. My new feed rate was now 25000 but since I thought I had overwritten the 200 all I did was hit Ok and went out to the shop. Everything cut just fine until it got to the outer profile. The ramp was at 250 ipm but when the cut reached the 0.2" depth it jumped up to 600 ipm, which is the max setting I have on the X & Y steppers. I was in a mild state of shock for a second trying to figure out what had happened but it cut around that 16" circumference so quickly that all I basically did was watch it cut. And it cut perfectly! The 3kW (4HP) spindle didn't blink at what I had inadvertently thrown at it, the bit was cool when it finished, and the edge was just as clean as it could be. I don't plan to move any future cuts to 600 ipm but I have to say, now that it's over and nothing broke, it was fascinating watching it cut that fast! This Saturn frame is one stout and rigid CNC setup! I have a camera in the shop but the output is proprietary and requires its own player. If I can figure out how to export that to something I can upload to YouTube I'll show y'all. David