Another Newbie

[JAZZCNC]

I can see myself trying this sort of job... Would tabs solve the problem Jazz??

Yes they work for some jobs but not all and with really thin material or small parts then there's not much left for the tab and they break or let the part lift.

On small parts I often leave a thin skin 0.1-0.2mm and don't actually cut right thru so it's kind of like a one big tab then just clean up with de-burr tool or quick blast across the sander and the skins gone, tabs on small parts don't really work very well.!

I wonder if some kind of picture frame might work.
Slide the sheet in, make the cuts.

Chris the problem comes from when you do the profile or outside cut thru the material, if not held down it will get grabbed or flung by the cutting tool. No sicker feeling than seeing a beautiful part which took 2 hours machine time come to life only to get chewed up and spit out in 2secs.!!

Clamping is probably one of the most un-thought about and time consuming things in DIY CNC.!! Unfortunatly the smaller the parts or thinner the material the worse the issue the more the need to get a good system in place.
If you have any thoughts to make multple identical parts then it's often worth taking the time to make a dedicated Jigs.!

[mocha]

Yes they work for some jobs but not all and with really thin material or small parts then there's not much left for the tab and they break or let the part lift.

On small parts I often leave a thin skin 0.1-0.2mm and don't actually cut right thru so it's kind of like a one big tab then just clean up with de-burr tool or quick blast across the sander and the skins gone, tabs on small parts don't really work very well.!

Thanks Jazz, I was thinking, using the OP question as the example, leaving 4 tabs of completely uncut material... then cutting through them with a fret saw, but yes, take your point.

[Chris J]

Anyone got a comment on this machine.

Seems to tick a lot of boxes for me.

[mocha]

There's a similar thread running here that you might find useful;

[Chris J]

There's a similar thread running here that you might find useful;

You forgot to mention depressing :-)

Seems too many folks have electrical problems Grrr

[mocha]

You forgot to mention depressing :-)

Seems too many folks have electrical problems Grrr

lol, What's that axiom? "If you want something doing properly..."?

[Chris J]

lol, What's that axiom? "If you want something doing properly..."?

All good if you know what is needed to do it properly.

[Chris J]

On small parts I often leave a thin skin 0.1-0.2mm and don't actually cut right thru so it's kind of like a one big tab then just clean up with de-burr tool or quick blast across the sander and the skins gone, tabs on small parts don't really work very well.!

I've been trying to get my head around this tab/skin business.

Are you saying that after cutting out I would use something like an orbital sander to remove the skin ad drop each piece out of the sheet.

Would a deburring tool go through a tab of say 0.2mm skin or tab?


Chris

[Chris J]

If anyone is replying specifically to me I have now started a build thread here, so maybe you could reply there - cheers

[JAZZCNC]

I've been trying to get my head around this tab/skin business.

Are you saying that after cutting out I would use something like an orbital sander to remove the skin ad drop each piece out of the sheet.

Would a deburring tool go through a tab of say 0.2mm skin or tab?


Chris

Yes you can usually press them out by hand or whip round with sharp stanley blade.
Usually quick blast across sander, I have a flat bed sander but orbital would work just as good, and then deburr edges followed by a thrash across buffing wheel.

This pic should give an idea, unfortunatly I'd snapped them out but you can just see the thin skin which just peels away with a quick bend and when first buckle is removed others just snap off easily with a slight burr left on the edge which you can just see if you look close. These are so tiny the deburr tool won't work but with a quick rub across sander these are gone in seconds and after quick buff on polisher they are silky smooth, all in all these take me 10mins each to deburr and polish and 30mins per 4 to machine.