Memorial Day Project: Flag Case

I’ve been working on this off-and-on for a while now, and have pretty much resolved everything:

Remaining adjustments are to put in chamfers to allow the tenons to fit despite being cut with a round (or maybe ball) endmill.

One thing I’m curious of, is if small endmills are available with less acute angles — I’d like to find some 1/8" endmills with more obtuse angles than the 90 which is the least acute angle I can find.

2 Likes

I believe I have all the chamfers place appropriately:

It ought to allow one to just clamp three pieces of wood in sequence, cut with a 1/8" endmill, and then should fit together with minimal tweaking.

Next up:

  • sorting out feeds and speeds on a Shapeoko for a 1/8" endmill in various hardwoods (first up red oak, then some rosewood, then some sapele)
  • doing CAM in MeshCAM — really wish using Carbide Create for this was an option (did put in a feature request which ought to make that possible)
  • using Carbide Create to make a fixture to hold it nicely centered
  • re-working the design for an Art Deco version cut in pieces which will fit on a Nomad (did I mention I need to make 2? And anyway, one might as well make 2, since that would allow cutting the glass to a square, then cutting that in half)
2 Likes

Nomad version should be easy to make with small sections — just add pockets for extension pieces, then cut narrower pieces to fit.

1 Like

Great project Will and good timing as well. I’m looking to make something like this in the near future as I’ve got my fathers flag, which was in a cedar chest for 35 years and has now been on a shelf since I became owner after my mother passed a couple years ago. I need a good way to box it up, and to make something myself would just feel right. I’ll be following!

Dan

4 Likes

So did you by chance finish this?

Nope, hopefully this year.

Yes and no. My wife bought me a flag case as a gift before I ever had a chance to make one. I had really wanted to make it myself, but the one she bought me is really great and I didn’t go out and buy it myself, so it’s perfectly acceptable in my mind. I have it displayed on a shelf in my man cave along with my fathers slide rule, my great grandfathers pocket watch, a China serving dish of my grandmothers, my mother’s reading glasses and some photos of my two oldest sons. It’s my shelf of “Things that matter if a natural disaster strikes”, get the family out, get dog and cat out, then grab everything off the shelf and let insurance replace the rest.

Dan

2 Likes

Revisiting this at:

https://www.blockscad3d.com/community/projects/1177710

Next up is actually resolving the joinery — this has a couple of different issues:

  • need to cut a 22.5 degree angle — a couple of possibilities:

    • use a 135 degree V endmill
    • model the angle in Carbide Create Pro
    • create a gradient which when appropriately placed and sized will cut the angle as a depth map in Carbide Create Pro
    • write a custom program to generate G-Code for cutting that out — for other options see: Thoughts on cutting specific angles into projects?
  • actually cutting the joinery — it should work to cut a series of slots using a square or ball-nosed endmill — these would then need floating tenons — need to work out the geometry for this, and see if using a cove radius endmill could result in a void free joint

1 Like

Working the joinery angle, we model this:

and then draw things up as a side view — insetting by the radius shows us what we can expect to have in terms of flat surface area:

Next is modeling this shape in 3D and working out how it might be cut out.

For the 45 degree join we get:

Which it turns out is scarcely more than a ball:

Unfortunately, 1/8" wooden (or other balls) are not readily available — 3mm seed beads are, but that’s not much to register against.

Slightly larger balls are readily available though, 4.5mm airsoft pellets — w/ a matching endmill one could cut round divots w/ space for glue and use these to register.

Why couldn’t you just mill a notch (or two) on the angled edges?

A spline would cover the “overcut” internal edge of the notch (since it’s cut perpendicular to the face), and you’d get the added strength and registration that you’re looking for.

I did the spline thing at:

https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-into-3d/blind-miter-and-hidden-spline

Trying to see what else can be done.

1 Like