Repetitive joinery

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

One concern for doing joinery is that it requires the repetitive placement of elements — the new beta:

Carbide Create 637 - Now With Arrays!

We just uploaded CC 637 to https://carbide3d.com/carbidecreate/beta . The changes are: (NEW) Undo now works current the Trim command. (NEW) Undo behavior of Corner Tool command matches Trim command. (NEW) Linear Array command. (INTERNAL) Optimizations for toolpath calculation with lots of little islands. Give it a shot and let us know what you think. EDIT: 638 includes some bug fixes and improvements: 638 (NEW) Linear Array allows dragging, selection changes, and undo within the command. …

adds a Linear Array command which makes this easier, so doing a box is that much simpler:

Draw one side of the box:

Draw in a rabbet for the bottom (using more complex joinery across the bottom is left as an exercise for the reader)

Draw geometry to measure the height of where the joinery will go:

Based on the height, determine how many joinery elements there will be and their size — 10 seems workable so 75.9/10 == 7.59mm for height, and width is the stock thickness, 8.35mm in this case:

Invoke the Linear Array command:

and set the number of rows (5) and columns (2) to create the number of elements needed (10) and set the X spacing to equal

part width (3.5in) - stock thickness (8.35mm)

and Y spacing to equal twice the joint height and the Column Offset to equal the joint height:

OK

Duplicate two of the joint elements, and increase their height sufficiently to offset the dogbones beyond where they would show:

and drag them into alignment w/ the originals and then delete the originals:

Offset the box outline by the diameter of the endmill which will be used plus 10%:

Draw up the geometry which will be necessary for cutting the miter:

and draw in a rectangle to allow calculating the depth of the fingers:

Then draw in the geometry for the miter cut — this has two be done twice — once, as an outline to Boolean union w/ the geometry, and a second time as a line for the actual cutting:

duplicate it, drag the duplicate into alignment w/ the original, then flip to the other side by also selecting the offset geometry:

Union the rounded geometry for the miter cut w/ the joinery:

Draw in clearance geometry for cutting the sides:

union each w/ the geometry for the joinery:

Repeat for the top and bottom:

Duplicate the central geometry, drag it into alignment w/ the original and subtract the rabbet for the base from it:

Then, it’s simply a matter of assigning toolpaths.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Select the joinery geometry which the rabbet was cut out of and the surrounding geometry:

and assign a pocket toolpath to the depth of the rabbet (half the stock thickness):

Select the original joinery geometry and the outer geometry and assign a pocket down to the depth determined by drawing up the miter in profile:

Select the geometry for the V cutting of the miter and assign a no offset contour toolpath starting at that depth and cutting to the stock thickness:

Go back and draw in geometry for cutting the top and the bottom:

select both and assign a pocket toolpath to cut to the full depth:

Move the V endmill toolpath to the bottom of the list:

Cut out four and add a bottom to make a square box.

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Updated the above to be a bit more efficient and to make the numbers a bit clearer — hopefully it’s fast enough that folks find it a useful way to cut the parts for a box or drawer — if not making a square, then duplicate one file (or part) and use Node Editing to drag one side to make it wider or narrower as desired.