They get sooo small.
I used to work a tool crib position at a small aerospace company. A lot of their parts required tiny pockets. I would be presetting tools that were as small as 0.01 inches with extended necks. If they broke the machinists loved to blame me.
For this project I’m trying to get within +/- 0.02 mm. The spindle runout should be less than 0.005 mm but don’t quote me on that. Things like your collet quality and tightness of the nut can affect it quite dramatically.
since i did the ashtry for my father-in-law, (even though it was purely chance i sketched the ashtray up while fooling around with some scrap aluminum i was testing feeds and speeds with) i was feeling guilty that I hadnt made my own dad something on the CNC. So in a moment of inspiration, I had an idea for a pool cue chalk & dart organizer for the basement at their house. Normally the darts and chalk are haphazardly stored on a window sill, which works, but this will give it a bit more…pizzazz.
plus im a glutton for long aluminum hog-outs apparently, and i had the perfectly sized piece of aluminum for it.
i bored 3 holes to mount it to the threaded table, and 2 for threaded dowels to index it square to the table (and in theory the rest of the machine)
im very happy with the fit, i left .02 STOL the first bore, then when it was too tight removed said stol and had a perfect sliding fit with basically no wiggle. dropping the pin in the bore you can see the air cushion slow it down as it drops in. that was satisfying.
and once again, my newbness came out when i flipped the part and my alignment was slightly off. (fortunately in a place nobody will ever see, and is not crucial to the shape, finish, etc) but this is another one of those parts that I haven put 60+ hours into thinking about how to hold it and whether my flip intentions will work, so im not too upset.
I use 1/8" shank bits on my SO3 XXL for engraving frequently. I use 0.0090", 0.0100", 0.0120", 0.0150", 0.0177"… Most of my SO3 work is under 1/4".
Was there a design file you sourced or did you create the design?
It was something I made up. I’ll post the file here if anyone wants to play with it. It’s a V7 Pro file using an 1/8" bit for the major part of clearing and a 1.0MM for the rest machine tool path. It can be easily sized to fit your block size.
blocks.c2d (128 KB)
edit- You’ll find the text in Layers
Finished this last week, the last thing I cut on my XXL. It’s 2 sided and was about an 7 hr carve on each side. Did it for a friends Cabin.
Scott
First of four fence hanging planters. Crappy big box dimensional pine board, curious to see how it’ll hold up. Finished with rattle can exterior poly.
Nice looking. Outside objects are transitory. Even if you used treated it would deteriorate. Looks good and will last a couple of seasons. Eventually you may need to paint it after the finish fails. The finish always fails. I have friends with teak on their sail boats and it is an annual event to scrub it down and reapply marine varnish.
By the time that rots, you’ll want a different one, and if you had used the finest wood from China you’d still want a different one. 
Heh heh, reminds of back when I used to believe what you read on the internet was true (not really but you know what I mean…).
“Use this brand marine epoxy and this brand spar varnish for an exterior finish that will last…”
3.6 years later
The unfinished scrap wood planter on top looks better lol.
Two Euchre score boards that used my first underside storage for cribbage pegs. Normally I include card and peg storage under a custom topper to the board so this is new for me.
This is my first wood inlay. I was happy with how tight everything fit. This is for my brother who teaches at Faith Lutheran Las Vegas.
Wow.
I really like your work for a beginner. I am new whit CCPro as well and you seem to have master it. This leads me to ask questions in your process if you could.
What software did you use for your Grayscaling and could you provide more details on the import setup and manipulation before the tool path step?
Good Cut. Thanks
Engraved faux ivory, 30° carbide drag bit. Seven passes each inked with various non-contiguous colors, sanded to remove excess. Still working out the protocol. Amazing repeatability from the Nomad. This piece will be smooth and glossy after final finishing.
Hi @Jean ,
Thanks for the compliment, though I do not deserve it, Carbide Create Pro did the bulk of it on it’s own.
It has been a while since that carving and the computer that file is on has crashed and I have not yet removed the Hard Drive to off load the files.
But, as I remember, it was a simple 2-D graphic I downloaded from Google Images.
I imported it into CCpro, ran it as a “subtractive”, selected rounded, and input the depth (.75"). Simple as that.
I think I was using a 1/4" shank, tapered to 1/16th ball-nose bit. Once it completed, I set it to carve again at full depth with several different angles to clean it up. It was still a bit rough because of the stepover values I used.
So, mostly, it was just an experiment trying to figure the usefulness of that particular bit.
btw, the 1/4 shank tapered to 1/16th ball nose does a very nice job cutting and if the finishing stepover is set to around 0.009" per pass it will leave a very smooth finish. Takes quite a bit of time though.
MC
Aren’t those called helical gears
I jest
That is beautiful. So is the whole image including the center a drag bit operation. What is the size of the whole thing. It is hard to tell the scale. If it is a drag bit operation did you use a magnification glass to get the colors to separate on the center section? Are you the artist for the center section? Looks a lot like the Rocky Mountains. Again BEAUTIFUL! I wanted to shew the dragon fly away, so real.
Thanks so much. It’s all done with a drag bit in my Nomad, a jewelry box for a niece. All art created by me, in Affinity Designer, with the help of some photos. The solid color areas are parallel lines 0.15 mm apart. The mountain in the background is the East Face of Mt. Whitney with Keeler and Day Needles on the left. (I scaled that East Face when I was much younger.) The dragonfly I also used for a stained glass window, the wing venation is the same. Here’s the tool paths in CC, the currently selected (red) is “pass 3” which grooves the mountain sun areas, the flower center colors and the stem.
