Here’s my cherry wood heart box with purple epoxy. I’ve got some videos of me doing similar concepts over the years, but this is my first attempt at a pure organically shaped box, with the epoxy lined up in the middle. It takes quite a few operations to make them; I mill a “mold” out of wood, pour the epoxy, wait for it to dry, mill the outside of the box, flip it over, and mill the inside. Repeat for the lid…
This is about the max size I can do on my PCNC 1100; I’m maxed out on the y-axis. I really need a dedicated CNC router machine, like the 24R.
I’m working on a YouTube video of these, along with a PDF on how to re-create them.
Should I tag this holiday-gift? I made several of these for sale; someone bought this one as a holiday gift for someone else. I guess it is kind of not something I made to give away, so I won’t tag it!
I have watched you do these for years on IG. The recent lava colored one “your name” was very sweet looking. And the well sculpted matching lids you have added really make the projects stand out. Well done. A 24r router has been a great investment for me. Expensive but worth every penny.
The lowest spindle speeds are about only thing I often need to work around doing delicate wood objects. Long small dia cutters do not perform well on harder woods turning 10k rpm this can limit total depth of work material and still get good results. Still there is always ways to design, cam to work around any problem. Anyway great job.
Thanks! That’s interesting to hear you want to lower the RPMs; I was thinking part of my problem is not spinning the small bits fast enough on my PCNC, which maxes at 5140 RPMs. I’ve been having a heck of a time getting good cuts with a 15 degree V-bit.
What speeds and feeds are you using and which bits? What problems were you having at higher RPMs? I’m super curious. Currently, I have an Avid CNC on order to do dedicated wood projects; but if I end up not liking it, I may sell it look into something else like the 24R
The high spindle speeds work fine for small to tiny tools! But this limits total material thickness down to small tool stick out or overhang of small shank cutters. If you use a long-shanked cutter with max stick out, you quickly have a lot of tool flex and TIR “total induced runout”. This causes varied results in the cut, grabbing, chatter, burning, you name it! Increasing spindle speeds and feeds only amplifies the problem. All the chatter and grabbing causes extra force on work piece also! This causes break out in delicate detailed designs. In short you have to limit the total depth of your design and material! If you go to larger tool diameters 3/8 dia + this allows for longer reach and thicker material. But the high spindle speeds with big diameter cutters will again grab and damage the fine delicate detail.
As I mentioned above there is always a way to design, cam and run code to limit problems that a user runs into on a given material! If you clamp everything down big time helps! But this causes different fab issues. Many variables in the process! In short the option for slower spindle rpms and slower feeds would solve many of the issues!
Anyway, overall, the 24r is imho a very well-designed cnc machine as is! And is the easiest most approachable cnc tool in my shop! Just downright fun to use! And I only use a general cad cam system. A more router large format specific cad cam program/system would also add to the fun, productivity and value!
Awesome - that is super great info, thanks for sharing! I definitely know what you mean about breaking delicate parts; I usually do my CAM to go slow feeds and shallow DOC on parts that I get chipout on.
