Community challenge #7: Carbide Create Pro (closed)

In the spirit of honouring @neilferreri’s dare AND hopefully documenting in the process how easy it is to do a simple CC Pro project, here’s my non-eligible-contribution-slash-CCPro-tutorial:

  • Ever since the announcement of the Nomad2020, I have had a severe case of Nomad craving, so I figured I would pretend I have one and use my Shapeoko to mill something small and detailed.

  • I stumbled upon a block a Renshape that had been collecting dust since I got it in a package from C3D in late 2017, so now was as good a time as any to use it! It’s about 5"x3"x1" (and I measured it to be precisely 73.7mmx124.5mmx25.62mm)

  • I created the project in CC, entering a stock size a tiny bit larger than the dimensions I measured on the renshape block:

jobsetup

  • I wanted to use this opportunity to try @fenrus wonderful STL to greyscale PNG heightmap converter, and random browsing led me to that 3D model I liked on Thingiverse:

  • In CC I created a rectangle of the same dimensions as the stock, to be used later as an outer bound for the greyscale-based 3D toolpath

  • I figured I would keep 10.62mm of stock thickness as a base, and make the 3D hand stick out by 15mm, and created the base 3D component accordingly:

  • I imported the greyscale heightmap of the hand, resized it by x1.2 for a better fit and set its height to 15mm above base:

  • I then adjusted the image position a bit (and yes, I cheated a bit and padded the image generated by the converter so that it extended over the whole surface of my stock)

  • which got me this:

  • Finally, back in the Design tab I added some text:

  • and created a 3D component from that text, 3mm above the base:

  • and got the final 3D modeling done:

  • I proceeded to create the toolpaths, first the 3D roughing toolpath using the outer bound, with a #102 1/8" square endmill (that’s 75ipm / 0.08" depth per pass and stepover):

  • Then a first finishing toolpath, using the #111 1/16" ballnose, setup for horizontal passes (0 deg angle):

  • Then a second finishing toolpath, using the same tool but setup for vertical passes (90deg)

  • Finally, I used a #122 1/32" square endmill to get the smallest details in the text, doing a simple outside contour toolpath:

  • I would not be using Carbide Motion this time (mostly because I have an unsupported probe that I wanted to use for corner probing), and I wanted to have to ability to stop and check things between the toolpath runs, so I decided to save each toolpath to a separate file. I used CNCjs and @neilferreri’s macros to still benefit from the BitSetter for tool changes.

  • Since I would be milling material from a stock of exactly the size I had setup in CC with no margins anywhere, I decided to cut a jig in MDF for positioning the Renshape stock while being sure that it would align perfectly with horizontal and vertical axes of the machine

  • I installed the Renshape stock using good old tape & glue workholding:

  • side note: I used just a few drops of CA glue for this job, as I did not want to risk breaking the piece of Renshape after the cut when prying it away, and since there would be very little forces on the stock during the cut anyway.

  • Quick check that my 1/8" endmill was sticking out enough from the collet to be able to mill 15mm of material:

  • I used my vintage BeaverCNC zero probe and @neilferreri’s touch probe macro to set zeros.

  • first order of business, 3D roughing with #102 1/8" square endmill. Renshape mills like butter, this is so relaxing to watch!
  • Here’s the piece after the roughing toolpath:

  • then I proceeded to the 3D horizontal finishing pass with the #111 1/16" ballnose
  • and while it was not really necessary, I ran the second/vertical finishing toolpath:
  • I ended up with this:

  • Finally, I installed the #122 1/32" square endmill to get the smaller details in the text. It always feels scary to see that tiny 1/32" endmill go down on the BitSetter…but it works.

Fininished piece:



There you go. Oh my, Renshape is so easy and satisfying to machine, I have a newfound passion for it. Shapeokos should ship with a few blocks of renshape for beginners I think ! Much more rewarding than everyone’s first cut in pine/fir.

I showed you mine, you show me yours now ! One more week to go to submit something in the challenge.

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