AVOR – a steel-framed medium-size router

[Neale]

Just to give a better idea of what I was cutting, and why I thought that CNC would be a better way than milling manually...

This is the "finished item", as shown in Fusion 360. It's all now cut and waiting final assembly.

And this is an exploded view. Not quite as good a view as F360 only explodes "components" and some of my components actually consist of several pieces that are not separated here.


My technique varied slightly as I went along. I started with more-or-less rectangular tabs and slots, with fillets in the internal corners to soften the tool motion while cutting. The resulting corners needed relieving with small files before assembly. Eventually, I realised that I could machine appropriate clearance fillets, so tabs had small semi-circular cutouts at the base and slots were given semi-circular ends. In practice, with a structure like this it is only the flat faces of the tabs and slots which locate; the tabs can slide sideways a little as this position is actually constrained by the way that the pieces butt up against each other. You can see the different techniques in various places in the exploded view.

As ever, I don't recommend that you try to copy me too closely, but it's an indication of the art of the possible if you are both careful and lucky.