Hi everyone! We feel there is a large volume of laser cut goods out there that fall flat, literally, in the 2D world. So, I've been working with Inventables to come out with a series of laser cutter projects to show how fab lab processes can produce high design.
Digital fabrication has given designers the opportunity to create exactly what we want to design on the fly. As more of this technology becomes available for the home (like this desktop laser cutter and this Shapeoko CNC) the landscape of how we buy and sell products is changing. We ask you to join in our efforts in creating thoughtful and innovative designs! The first project in this design series is the Colony Coaster.
The Colony Coasters are a set of tessellating cherry wood coasters that interlock to become trivets or center pieces. The honeycomb shape encourages users to work together to create new shapes over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.
Coming to a CNC mill from a laser cutter, it is easy to get tripped up by the physical size of the bit when making designs. Any time you want to cut out an inside angle, you need to keep in mind that you can't reach all the way into an inside angle with a rounded bit. This comes up frequently when making furniture or any type of joinery; this post was inspired by the awesome examples of CNC joinery from this Make magazine post. Let's dive into the problem with inside corners and illustrate strategies to fix it.
The problem obviously depends on the size of your bit (let's call the bit radius R). An easy way to reduce the impact of this problem without modifying your design is to simply use a smaller bit. A laser cutter suffers from this only slightly because the 'bit size' is a tiny beam of light! Fixing the inside corner problem
You can modify your design to compensate for this problem. There are actually several ways to cover the red area shown above.
If you have…
One of the best upgrades for the Shapeoko is to use a spindle instead of the rotary tool that many start with. The 300 Watt Quiet Cut Spindle from Inventables works great with the Shapeoko desktop CNC. It is a great upgrade for many other DIY CNC router designs as well.
To make your life a little easier, we've compiled all the parts necessary for this upgrade into a single project that can be purchased here.
The Quiet Cut Spindle has several features that make it perfect for this application. very quiet, compared to the rotary tool, you barely hear it runninggreat tool holding, with a industry standard ER11-A collet includedadditional collets availableair cooledcompact and light weightaffordable
Hooking it up to work with the gShield (previously known as grblShield) on the Shapeoko is a pretty simple procedure that only requires a few more items, and most people should be able to perform the upgrade in a few hours. When the gShield is hooked up correctly the spindle will turn on a…
Woodworking can be a bit daunting if you're new. There seems to be a neverending endless list of things to know: what wood to use, which tools to use, proper project setup, joinery options, finishing techniques...and how much glue do you actually need?
Plus, if you're just starting to build up your tools, it's hard to imagine spending a lot of money on acquiring the right tools for your shop. You'll want to know you're buying the right tools with your budget.
Luckily, Dylan and Molly from Woodbrew put together this short video on the essential woodworking tools that will help you get started—all for only $100!
Here's the full list of Dylan and Molly's recommendations: (note: they make a small commission off purchases made from these links)
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