Interesting Tech Projects
Archive for March, 2009
Coaster Sets Made Using CNC
Mar 21st
For Christmas 2008 I made coaster sets as gifts. I took pictures at the time but only now am I getting around to uploading them. I hope they provide inspiration for someone else. If the subject matter for the coasters seems a bit odd or random, it’s because most of them were designs intended specifically for the people they were given to.
Each set contains four coasters and a holder and involved about seven hours of work. The wood is 1/4″ poplar. The inlay is Premo! polymer clay. The items were finished with Varathane. Cut using 1/8″ spiral upcut endmills and 0.0571″ endmills. Designs were made in Solidedge 2D and the toolpaths were generated in CamBam Plus. On the bottom are thin discs of cork, glued on with Titebond II.
CNC Dust Box
Mar 21st
I have finally completed my dust box. Although this box is designed for the FireballCNC V90, it can fit any CNC machine the same size or smaller. Some features:
- Removable sides, top and front
- Cavities for optional sound dampening
- Reinforced floor
- Electronics storage with plenty of room for expansion
- Window on the front
- Made with easy to find materials
Some pictures are below. This will allow me to use my CNC machine in the house with people and animals around without worrying about snapped bits, sawdust, etc.
The plans for this box are now available for $15! That is a $15 donation to Top Dog, a non-profit in Tucson, Arizona, USA that helps disabled people train their own service dogs and remain independent! Donate to get the plans now!
The plans are in imperial/English units and consist of 26 pages. The inside dimensions of the box are approximately 26″W x 34″D x 23″H with the electronics storage being 7″W x 34″D x 8″H. The approximate cost to construct the box is $80 – $100, nearly all the cost of the wood. The box can be made with a table saw/circular saw and a drill. No special electric tools are required. A full parts list is included. The plans also include some hints and tips.
Fireball V90 EMC2 Configuration Files
Mar 4th
I am making my configuration files available to help anyone trying to get their Fireball V90 machine working with EMC2. The configuration is for inches, 1/4 microstepping and the HobbyCNC Pro board.
To use these files you will first need to perform the latency test and work out the base period for your PC. Open the Stepconf wizard and choose to update this configuration. Put the latency test results into the Stepconf wizard. Then you must double-check the pin configurations for your board if you are not using the same one I am. These changes are easy to make. I recommend 1/4 microstepping as it gives smooth operation without much reduction in power and speed.
Note that Stepconf will tell you that the INI file has changed since the configuration was generated. I changed the DEFAULT_VELOCITY to 0.9 so the default jogging speed is a bit faster.
Download Fireball V90 EMC2 Configuration Files.
Update: Now with Stepconf generated config files.
