Milling 4 inch high stock on the Nomad

I’m making jewerly boxes, the quadrant hinges I will be using are very tedious to mill out by hand. The Nomad would be a welcome asset for this but the bottom half of a box is about 4" high. I’m hoping to be able to mill that with the Nomad.

I see I can fit a piece of stock this high under a mill. The principal potential issue looks to be that the spindle carriage would sit below the top of the stock. Since the hinges sit along the edge of the box, there would be enough room for enough travel along the Y to perform the milling without the carriage contacting the stock. But I’m not entirely clear, from my three weeks with the Nomad, whether the machine would feel a need to travel further along the minus-Y without my instruction. Nor do I know whether there are built-in limitations, along the Z, where it will permit a run at that height.

Without knowing the exact setup you are thinking of, and in the interest of the fastest possible answer, I would set up the job, remove the part, let it cut air, and watch.

Then you might try a pasteboard mockup, lightly taped up so it will collapse if pushed too hard, such as a carriage or spindle crash, it will pop apart before the machine is damaged or a tool broken.

Pay attention to the homing, tool length, and the tool change cycles, as they are the places where the spindle will go places not part of the job.

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I think you may be better off with a shapeoko. I’m not exactly sure what you are after (pictures may help illustrate) but the Nomad has a 3 inch thickness limit. Here is a picture of the baseplate and the y gantry bottom. The spindle/bit can be raised above that, but I don’t think you’d be able to fit the box in there without a redesign of the boxes.
New photo by Joshua Renfro

I think you could get creative with the Shapeoko 3 by setting the box out front of the machine (like in one of Will Adams posts for the box joint) or making a opening in the middle with the wasteboard.

Certainly don’t want to discourage you from the machines, they are pretty great (I love the nomad, and can’t wait to get the Shapeoko fixed up to start working with it), but with the project you’ve outlined as I understand it wont work.

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If what you are saying is what I think you are saying, this should be do-able. As you say, its all about bringing the spindle over the box while making sure the y-axis doesnt bring the box under(into) the carriage behind the spindle. I have done similar - it just takes a little attention to the toolpath and some measuring to make sure the y-axis doesn’t bump your stock.

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@PhilG Thanks for the “proof of principle” photo, quite similar to what I have in mind.

@Radiation This quest is an abberation in what I otherwise ask of a CNC machine, all of which is best suited to the Nomad. No other pressing reasons to acquire a Shapeoko. Oh yeah. . . no shop space left either!

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