Curious on how to approach something like this on CNC?

How To
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New to CNC in general. Would like to design holders for game tiles like in this picture.

My question would be mostly around milling curved objects like this.

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image1588Ă—1588 103 KB

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You will want a full-fledged 3D CAD/CAM program such as:

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Thanks Will! I’ll look at Alibre and similar, I am somewhat familiar with using fusion as well though on the CAM side not as much.

I think in terms of designing it, I get the general idea but translating that to the actually milling I’m not sure I guess how to achieve the shape best. Is it possible vertically? Would you carve the concave side first then flip it?

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How a part once designed is machined is a topic which runs up against:

  • stock size and machine working area — certain orientations may not be possible due to Z-axis limitations
  • workholding — how will the stock be clamped/secured?
  • will a fixture be needed for one or more additional operations?
  • tabs/sprues — will it be necessary to add tabs/sprues if a fixture alone is not sufficient?

For an example of one approach to this sort of thing see:

Note that there are entire books written on jigs and fixtures:

The search term you want is “Design for Manufacturing”.

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Very helpful resources, thanks Will.

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I would design the object in a 3d software like sketchup or tinkercad (because i know them). Export it in .stl and then import the file in CC to carve it using 3D toolpath

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