Question about system capabilities

[liquidguitars]

Using Mach 3 say you have 3x4 table with 20 Turkey parts all nested in the 3x4 area. The table size has nothing to do with centering but place on the corner does.

the parts just need to be in the right place 100% of the time without any error in measuring home 0,0,0 unlike the CW that changes position when indexing.

[Digitalwoodshop]

So I am thinking about this.... If I would start fresh with a MDF board with the same thickness of the blanks. Let call the blanks 4 x 4 inches for example. I would use a 12 inch wide MDF blank or what ever the shelf blanks width are. I would make twelve 4 x 4 cut paths centered set to even numbers from the right side of Designer, call it every 6 inches 2 wide. Cut a sheet of thin plywood to cover the bottom. The 4 x 4 blanks will not just drop into the 4 x 4 holes. They can be secured by 4 strips of masking tape. Some Thumb Holes around the outside of 4 x 4 squares might aid in pulling out the blanks.

In this version, the sled would never be removed from the machine, you just either flip the blank and run the back program mpc or install new and run the front program.

Easy...

AL

[liquidguitars]

I think we need a x prize for the best method of centering two MPC's. using " place on corner" and wide warped lumber as part stock lets say 9x16. I be willing to donate a Electric Violin to the winner...

I need this tho:

Sled and Designer are the same in design but the sleds can be .50" bigger all around more or less.

sled can have 4" or 6" or bigger end blocks/tails.
sled needs .75" thick bottom for drywall screws.
sled opening for the parts can be offset like nested parts would be. Think more than one part cut at the same time.
sled rails next to the brass roller can't be larger than .60" if use on guitars, smaller make more room for guitars tops at 13.1" finished.
Designer must cut the opening or layout id for the part blank location.
sled should be one part one sled concept. Designed for just the part and not universal. ie big and bulky.

[Foggycarver]

Al, I like your idea but I'm not sure i grasp it all because i have never ran the machine to see how it works. The 4x4 inch blank would waste less lumber because of the way i buy it. The OD of the call cut out is 3.9" So i would have a program or file for the front and a separate program for the back? Treat it as two separate operations? What would happen if you had say an 1/8" play or slop inside the pocket between the sled pocket and blank? Would that create an offset alignment issue front to back when you flipped the blank over ? Maybe you could center it all by eye and wouldn't matter in the pocket.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Al, I like your idea but I'm not sure i grasp it all because i have never ran the machine to see how it works. The 4x4 inch blank would waste less lumber because of the way i buy it. The OD of the call cut out is 3.9" So i would have a program or file for the front and a separate program for the back? Treat it as two separate operations? What would happen if you had say an 1/8" play or slop inside the pocket between the sled pocket and blank? Would that create an offset alignment issue front to back when you flipped the blank over ? Maybe you could center it all by eye and wouldn't matter in the pocket.

I believe small wooden wedges that would be used to force the blank to one common corner, tiny wedges backed up by masking tape to hold the position.

You could make the first function that the machine does is put a dot in a section of the sled that has a flush dowel pushed in with tape on top. You would watch this very first function as a first carve and look at the location of the touch of the bit as in marking a .001 deep hole with the carving bit.

This would tell you the machine was going to cut the whole project in the correct position. If you saw the hole was off, you coud at that time just stop the machine and turn off the power and let it re establish home and bit position again and let it place the hole again. If correct, off you go...

This would check 2 very critical things... X/Y Position as in marking in the center of a flush cut dowel that can be replaced.... and the 2nd would be the Z Heigth... Two weeks ago I was cutting a project in my very cold shop and I thought the Board Touch of the Z was high.... By about a 1/2 inch... And it did it twice... SO I let it go thinking I was wrong... I get the project carving done then the cut path and the Cut Path had not cut all the way through... So I did see a problem and could have started the machine over and corrected it... So what I did was do the Carving of the 2 pockets again as in runing the project again but stopped the machine and cut the Cut Path on the band saw. Worried about pinching of the 1/8th inch bit...

So the Dowel that you can replace acts as a Quality Control check.

And once you make the 12 block MPC you can then make duplicate files of 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2... and even 1..... Just delete the un needed cuttings.... Used to fix a problem or just run one or more parts.... I have a few memory cards and have one with just all my Tag Sizes that I leave in the Wood Shop.

AL

[Foggycarver]

Yes , that might work if you pushed each blank up tight against a specific corner each time to locate the blank in to the sled. At work we have a square fixture bolted to the mill table and each part is pushed up tight into the square corner. It doesn't matter if the part is round or square just push it up tight into the corner of the square and it works. I might make alot of firewood starting off I will do one at a time first,then work up to 4 and see how that goes.

[Digitalwoodshop]

I would also invest into a Wireless Intercom to listen to the machine and a CCTV Camera inside the cover looking at the carving area... I listen into my machine next door in the Warm Laser Shop. Two things I still want to add is a remote Stop switch by using a relay to open the cover switch from the laser shop and wire the video camera. I have the coax ran just have not done it. Some tried the RF Cameras but the sparks from the Cut Motor Brushes cause problems.

Considering a carve can take an hour, doing a 1, 2, or 4 carving might be better...

AL

[Foggycarver]

whooa ! alot to think about. Alot of ideas on how to do it i guess there is more than one way to skin a cat so we say here in WV. I guess my personal last idea was to treat the carve as two separate carves. Lets call it the front side which is hallowed out. The second side has a logo carved and slotted to let sound out.
I would cut 4 blanks at a time 4" square blanks. The sled would be simple 4" square holes cut out 3/4" MDF. I would hallow out the call in this operation and cut it free from the blank.
The second operation would be another mpc file and sled. The sled would be 4 round holes 3.9" diameter just a reverse carving of the hallowed part meaning the call would press fit onto the sled to carve the logo and slots.That would keep it from moving and alil tape. What do you guys think?

[DocWheeler]

You are right, there is a lot to think about.
I have not commented on your project yet, but now feel the need.
I do not want to add to your burden of thoughts, but...

If you are going to produce many of these, I'd definitely suggest that you at least use a 10" X 32" frame.
That way you would carve 10 calls at a time. Thirty-two inches works pretty well without additional support.
With a 10" wide board, you would need dust collection on the top (like Floyd's) rather than the normal downdraft.

I scanned this thread trying to find the reason for cutting the slots from the other side.
I would think it would save time to do all the carving/cutting from one side - must have missed something.

Have you thought of using a "branding-iron kinda thing to burn-in your logo?

[fwharris]

If I was doing this I would keep it as a 2 sided carve. Have the front side of the design as the hollowing out steps and the back side for the logo. Using one sled as you describe in you first set up.