I feel like I am starting to hit my stride with the Shapeoko. I have a branding iron from Gearheart Industry which is a great iron, but has a very long handle. This makes it difficult to get a brand in the location desired and not aligned slightly off kilter. I had to idea to make an alignment block and with taking some measurements with my calipers, I was able to design and cut this block in no time! On the first attempt it was too tight so I opened the tool path up a few thousandths (super easy in vcarve pro, although I learned it as considered a negative pocket allowance) and I got that oddly satisfying piston fit:
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I don’t know if you need that tight a fit for this to work but assuming the brand was cold when you made your video, will this be too tight when you heat the brand and it expands a bit?
Good point - I had not really considered that. This was mostly an experiment and I have not yet tried it with the brand on. I assumed it may burn/brand the sides a bit which is why I thought tighter might be better (as the cavity may get larger if material is lost due to burning)
I’ll follow up when I have a chance to use it!
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