CNC Router Bits and Settings

These are bits I use alot when machining wood and foam on one of my cnc routers:


http://a.co/d/gk4JHcu

http://a.co/d/9dlkCru

http://a.co/d/aUkdQnK

http://a.co/d/eMyrxo7

http://a.co/d/2dUImHS

http://a.co/d/bq0N1Ee

http://a.co/d/a5x9mGf

http://a.co/d/31qg3BQ

http://a.co/d/6554ezj

http://a.co/d/6gKVwYh

http://a.co/d/fBVDNDy

http://a.co/d/bWxKbS8

http://a.co/d/8qLsfzP

http://a.co/d/69FWDxj

http://a.co/d/8jyuz0G

http://a.co/d/0jxt9Bv

http://a.co/d/g4agwBc

http://a.co/d/0u4oyUJ

http://a.co/d/hxfwmCX

http://a.co/d/b97u2O6

The tear down of Forsaken.

1/22/14 - A fire in our neighbors unit calls for 60 fire fighters from 15 departments. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/01/fire_forces_evacuation_heavily.html Our unit is flooded with water, and the smoke and soot is impossible to see thru.

It is decided, that the best course of action for Forsaken, our insurance, and the building, is for us to tear down and move everything that wasn't garbage to Factory of Terror. 

4/9/14 Matt, Chris and I palletized the que lines and took down the rope lights. Folded up all the tables and school tables. 

4/10 Matt and I took down speakers

4/11 Mike Hach took down most of the que line fence. I helped finish. Took rest of speakers and audio boards down.

4/12 I took down wiring from greenhouse to bathroom. Matt took out tap cons 

4/13 mike worked on a bunch Matt striped scenes from greenhouse to kitchen Corey and I took down wiring to cages.

4/16 took down Dock fence , loaded trailer 2

4/17 Matt dropped props, mike continued wiring removal on district, Steve fielder and I dropped walls and stacked them. Finished loading trailer 2 and it was swapped out. 

4/18 chris and Matt drop half of manor and facade

4-19 chris and Matt drop the rest of manor

4/20 Matt loaded scenes in Gaylord's. Him and I took down paneling and parts or thunderdome

4/21 chris and I took bolts and supporting pieces out of thunderdome

4/21 thunderdome

4/23 Matt and I worked on thunderdome

4/24 Matt and I finished taking down thunderdome

4/25 mike Dan and chris finished taking down quarantine 

4/26 destroyed everything. 3 flatbreads (24 stacks of 24 walls, butcher case, 100 cagemaze panels) 4 semi trailers filled most of district down, church down, manor facade down, part of dri strict facade down, lost of sweeping and cleaning. Pete wills, Marilyn, Matt, Corey, Diana, john and his 3 guys, Adam mike chris Dan 

4/27 mike Diana me Andy, Steve Fielder Corey chunk Marilyn  tore down tree, tore down sewer, loaded 2 more trailers with church courtyard, hospital sewer two and sewer

4/28 Matt and I took down sludge factory vortex and steam pipes

4/29 Matt and I loaded mechanics thru toy store into trailers. Mike and chris took down district facade. Matt and I came back and loaded warehouse, steam pipes, animations

4/30 Matt Steve and i loaded all the factory set props into a trailer. I got propane for forklifts. 

5/1 John and his two guys, Steve, Matt, mike and I took down factory and vortex, packed two trailers. Mike and chris took down theater. Diana packed Gaylord's. 

5/2 one of johns guys, mike, Steve, Matt, and I loaded trailers 13 and 14. Diana, her dad, mindy and her husband, frank and actors filled a 40 yard dumpster and swept and cleaned everything

5/3 mike and I loaded the last trailer. Took pizza warmer and coke cooler to chris shop. Two loads to Evilusions. I took down the main electrical panels and fire panels. I loaded the compressor into the trailer. 

5/4 mike took down heat detectors. I lost my phone in the dumpster but found it. 

5/5 scott came to pick up the scissor lift but the building was chained shut.

I never went back to the building after that. That was the end of Forsaken. 

Fiberglass molding a new sculpture

Chris and I have only done a few molds in fiberglass. This is the first proper one, done on a WED clay sculpture. 

After sculpting, Chris added a mold wall using .02"  x 4" aluminum sheeting. I sheared it into strips and he inserted it into the clay. We wanted to try molding both halves at once to save time, instead of using a clay mold wall, fiberglassing one side, waiting for it to cure, then molding the other half. 

We sprayed three coats of PVA on each side. Then went over the aluminum with some sonite wax to he safe. 

While the PVA was drying, I ripped off a bunch of sections of 38-1/2" 7-1/2oz fiberglass mat. This particular mat can only be used with polyester fiberglass resins. We prefer the mat over cloth for conformability to the sculpture. 

I pre dispensed some of the materials we would be using. I like even numbers, so I used 16oz cups of resin, as this took 5cc of MEKP. 

 

For the first two coats on each side, we used a 50/50 mix of bondo and resin, 16 oz of each, the activator for the bondo, and 5cc of MEKP. 

3 layers of mat on the main body and 5 on the mold wall later, and we have a mold. 

Do not use PVC for compressed air purposes.

Several good links that show why you should NOT use PVC pipe to distribute your compressed air system, or to make any sort of pressurized device, such as a home made pneumatic cylinder, air cannon, spud gun, etc. Although PVC has a PSI rating on it, it is not designed for the types of forces that compressed air exerts upon it. This can result in shrapnel explosions that are very dangerous.

https://www.osha.gov/dts/hib/hib_data/hib19880520.html

http://www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/Basics/HazAlerts/902.asp

As a side note, I personally was standing next too a 3" PVC elbow that was installed with an improperly specified pneumatic distribution system, when it exploded. Luckily I only had small cuts. It could have been much worse.

Welding cubes

For some reason, I tend to weld a lot of rectangles, and cubes, out of steel tubing. 99% of the time, it's 1" x 1" x 1/8" wall. For along time, I have been using these Wilton 90 degree corner clamps that I bought at Lowe's, for something like $30 a piece. They are light weight cast aluminum, and have served me well. However, when welding a cube, it takes multiple set ups, several grinding set ups, and so forth. When a recent project arouse to weld some rectangles and cubes, I decided to invest in some new equipment.

In the first picture, you can see a rough set up using the mentioned Wilton clamps. The second picture being the end result.

I  have been drooling over these clamps, from Stronghand Tool for years. But at $1600 for all 8 needed to weld a cube, they have been out of my price range.

I bought these corner clamps made by Stronghand Tools, to replace my Wilton corner clamps.

But I still need a way to clamp a third axis. After doing alot of googling, I found an image from an obscure website, showing how to use 2 products from Stonghand, to make a less expensive 3 way corner clamp. By using a combination of these pipe pliers and these clamps, I was able to make a cube in one set up! I actually ordered the parts from Welding Supply.com because their prices are less than Trick Tools, but I order some items from Trick Tools as well.

You can see a cube set up here:

After tacking, before full welding. 

Harbor Freight Bar Bender Set up, 90 deg Steel

In the previous post about setting up the Harbor Freight Bar Bender, we bent some 5051 aluminum using the right angle attachment. Here, we will be bending 1/8" x 1" cold rolled 1018 steel. With this material, you can not use the right angle attachment, as the steel will actually fracture on the back side. On these parts, I had to get the 90 degree bend with a small radius around the center pin.

For this set up, we use the bar bender in it's more standard set up, of having the swinging arm pined in the last hole, and bending around the center pin as the mandrel. I wanted a tight radius bend, so I used the pivot pin with no extra mandrel in the center. The driving pin in the swing arm was in the 3rd hole, as I only had a small amount of stock sticking out to bend. In the frame of the bender, I bent against the other pivot pin, although I should have installed the square stop block. I wanted a bend of just 1-1/8" sticking out, and this is about the minimum possible in this set up. Anything less, and the material will slip past the swing arm driving pin and you won't get the full 90 deg.

Setting up a Harbor Freight Bar Bender for 90 degree bends

I love my little harbor freight bar bender. I use it for a lot of parts. We even use a few of them at my day job for bending lots of parts we shouldn't be able to in quantities that exceed expectation. We have actually worn a few of them out bending 1000's of 3/8" stainless rod.

The problem is the lack of set up information for general bending. The book that comes with it is vague in explaining where to put what pins and stop to get the desired results. I will be posting pictures and information for every job I do with mine, for the purpose of helping others like myself out.

In our first installment, I was bending 1-1/2" wide, 1/8" thick, 5051 aluminum sensor brackets. For this we use the right angle bend attachment. As shown below, it gets mounted in the back frame. As opposed to standard set ups where your bending around the mandrel on the center of the frame, with the right angle attachment, you are using the arm to push the part across and over the right angle attachment. That is why the arm gets moved from the center hole, to at least the 3rd hole. Depending on your part, you may move it farther in. When I get some time, I will post a link to a youtube video and a picture of the part before and after.