Time-Lapse CNC Milling Part 2

A part of a vehicle model is being cut by a CNC milling machine. The material in use is modelmaking foam.

This time, the model is much bigger (about 13cm thick) and has to be accessed from 4 sides.

The video is plays back 80 times faster.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• cnc
• mill
• foam
• model
• rapid
• prototyping
• KISD
• design
• Köln
• Cologne
• time-lapse

[vrogy]

Is that one of the new Starcraft's Protoss ship designs?

[KrystianMajewski]

Yes, I mean the 0 point of the coordinate system. But also the 0 point of the coordinate system of the machine.

You should really ask the operator of the machine instead of random people on the internet.

[cubixthe]

I'm playing with SolidCam right now.. by the 0 point do You mean the 0 point of the coordinates (XYZ) ? By the way are You Polish by any chance ? I'm from Poland ;)

[KrystianMajewski]

Yeah. Or you can calibrate the 0-Point before you screw in the part. Or maybe you can put a round piece of wood into the hole which is longer than the thickness of the piece and calibrate the 0-Point at the top of that piece of wood.

It really depends on what exactly you want to mill and how your milling machine works.

[cubixthe]

I'm getting it right now :) The thing is, when I place the part with the holes on the table how do I let the machine know where the hole is?(where to start..) can I mount a tool the size of the hole for example, move it down close to the table so that it goes in the hole, screw the thing down then and tell the machine to start from that spot ?

[KrystianMajewski]

Oh yeah, haven't thought about using the waterjet for the holes. Well then it's simple. You just screw the model through the holes to the baseplate and set the 0 Point on the top of one of the screws. You can then take the model off, rotate it 180°, screw it back in again from the other side and do the other side.

Actually, we wanted to do that initially. You can see the holes we drilled at the very beginning on either sides of the cube.

[cubixthe]

But if there are holes in the model and they've been cut on the waterjet (so theoretically they can work as reference), how would You position the object then? If You want to do that a couple of times (and even made a "negative" piece out of wood on the machine - but it has to come off the table sometime...)

[KrystianMajewski]

If there are no perpendicular surfaces on the piece - good luck.

One thing that also works sometimes: drill two holes into the piece and screw the piece through that holes into the baseplate. You can use the holes in the baseplate as reference coordinates for the mill.

But then again - if the piece is already cut and it has a weird shape, you can't really mesure where the holes are.

[cubixthe]

Yeah, I see it now... But what if You would have a piece, that has been cut in 2D on a waterjet (or laser) and then YOu have to mill something precisely on it? How would You position it on the table ?

[KrystianMajewski]

We milled a grove into the ground where the block fits in perfectly.