3-sided rotary CNC routing with the Shapeoko - Carving a Koi fish

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This video shows modifications to the Shapeoko XXL CNC frame and bed to accommodate a manual rotary setup that allows for multi-sided 3D carving of objects (along a B-axis) that are too big to fit underneath the X-gantry rail.

To show proof of concept, I carved a Koi fish from a solid stack of plywood with 3-sided CNC routing.

Software used:

  • Meshmixer to create the 3D Koi fish
  • Vectric VCarve to generate the tool paths
  • UGS Platform to send the Gcode to the CNC

Materials used:

  • Everbilt 1 inch square tubes with 5/16" holes spaced 1" apart
  • 1/4" steel triangular plates
  • 3/8" bolts (the 5/16" holes were widened with the drill press)
  • 18 mm (3/4") Sande plywood: 4 sheets of 600x600 mm (4’x4’)
  • Surfacing bit to flatten and pocket the stock: WhiteSide #1027A
  • Extra long roughing bit: Amana Tool end mill #46590
  • Extra long finishing bit: Amana Tool ball nose #46490
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Hi Dennis,

Nice to see you here !
We praised your work two months ago actually :slight_smile:

Love your latest frog video too.
Extremely inspiring work!

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Thanks for the kind words, Julien! Someone in the Facebook group pointed me to this forum, so I thought I’d join and share my projects, as others might be interested in getting the most out of their wonderful CNC machines, too.
More projects to follow; I’ll take it slow, as I don’t want to overload this forum with all my projects on the first day of joining. :slight_smile:

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Thanks for joining and sharing your outstanding work! I look forward to seeing more!

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OK, second day…what else have you got?

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LOL! If you can’t wait, maybe you should check out my YouTube channel. :slight_smile:

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I’m afraid to look at your YouTube channel again, because I might re-see that bust of a lady that you did. Can’t get that out of my mind! :smiley: :smiley:

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OK, next one will be of a man. Give me some time to bulk up for the photogrammetry! :wink:

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I’ve seen your work and been anxious to ask you some questions.

First is what tools do you use to for your designs and to generate the gcode. I’m looking at doing some 4 sided stuff and your work fascinates me.

Thanks, Gary

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Most of the software to design the projects and generate the GCodes are explained in the videos, and I also list them below the videos in the description. But it usually comes down to: Zephyr (for photogrammetry), Meshmixer (for modifications of and additions to the 3D models), VCarve (for tool path generation), and UGS Platform (for sending the GCode to the CNC).

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Could you recommend a video showing how the 3d model is repositioned in vcarve to get the 3 views

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Vectric has an extensive list of videos, showing everything you need to know:
https://www.vectric.com/support/tutorials/vcarve-desktop?playlist=TutorialCategories&category=all