Nomad: Cutting parts bigger than the bed?

Looking at buying a Nomad, but I’m worried the bed will be too small to do what I want. I want to cut various brass parts, the largest of which are ~12 inches long (but only about 1 inch wide). I’ve been looking for procedures for cutting things like on the 8" bed, but not finding much. Anyone have some input on how to do this reliably?

Cutting things larger than ones machine is often called tiled machining.

Vectric VCarvePro and Aspire do this really well. There is a VCarvePro post processor (a software “adapter”) for the Nomad available on the forum.

The technique is easiest when your software does it for you but by understanding the geometry and process one can do it themselves.

Say your object is longer than your machining area (bed on the Nomad) but not wider. This leaves room on the sides for fixturing… and index holes. The index holes provide an accurate/precision placement of the job on the bed.

The index holes line up with a known place on the bed (some of the holes).

Mill the first part and the index holes. Shift the stock on the bed and fixture using the index holes. Mill the rest. That’s it!

If the CAM software knows where the index holes are and where they are on your bed it can mill things nicely for you. If the CAM software doesn’t know, you do! One can (creatively) use their CAD and CAM packages to set up things so that this all works out fine. It does take a bit of visualization and some thought.

The index holes ensure that the piece remains aligned for all of the segments… and the stock doesn’t move too.

I recommend a sea-of-holes bed.

marke

Is this something that MeshCam can do?

Is this something that MeshCam can do?

By itself (automatically), no. With some thinking about your CAD and CAM and setting up MeshCAM, sure. There will be some manual steps. It’s easy!

Watch the video and you’ll understand the concepts. How to map this into the MeshCAM world isn’t hard… but it does require a bit of creativity. We’re here to help.

If you want to know details, we can explain.

mark

Ok, thanks for the help!