Heres an example of a small production run using the Shapeoko 3 and Carbide Create.
The Tools and Materials:
.25" End mill (#201)
1/2" plyboo
220 Sandpaper
Deft Clear coat.
1/4"radius Router bit and table.
Shapeoko 3
The Setup:
A sheet of 16" x 14" x 1/2" Plyboo was mounted on top of a sheet of 1/4" MDF spoil board with HDPE clamps into the S3 threaded table. I located the clamps on the left and right side making sure the Y plates cleared the lifter blocks behind the clamps. Making sure the clamps are outside the cutting area as well as clear of the plates and the dustshoe was the only challenge to this setup. (in the video you will notice my clamping was initially different and I changed it after noticing they were in the way.)
In Carbide Create I filled a 16" x 14" grid with as many parts as possible, by scaling the design I was able to use most of the stock- and create a family of sizes of the slingshot.
The First Toolpath is just the holes in all the handles. (Toolpath 4 is one hole that I had missed )
The last operation is the outside cut fo all the slingshot handles. I set the max depth to .482" this left a thin skin at the bottom of the part so they didnt fly free during the cut, but was also thin enough to snap the parts out by hand.
The Sheet of plyboo Slingshot handles - see the tiny little one?
I came across this Deft spray clear in design school and have used it whenever possible ever since.
It dries really quick and is hard to get a bad looking finish.
A pile of Slingshot handles.
Now, I could have made a jig and mounted the parts and ran a toolpath to radius or chamfer the edges, but honeslty it was quicker to mount a radius bit in the Router table. See the video above for what that looked like. (See how the holes are not aligned perfectly? The first job setup as seen in the video interfered with the clamps and resulted in a misalignment) Measure twice! Cut a bunch of parts after that!
The Large Slingshot handle.
The Little Tiny Slingshot. Yup- it fits in the Altoids tin, great for sharing from across the room.
Carbide Create file:
3 Slingshots.c2d (1.4 MB)
Carbide Create User Guide:
http://carbide3d.com/carbidecreate/userguide.html
Happy Making!
-A
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