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If you want to do the Rhino drawing, that will in fact save you some bucks.

Otherwise I will need at least some cross section drawings through the major design features and a plan view for the...

Give me shout off-line. I will quote both the body and Rhino drawing.
The time frame is fine, I can turn it around in about a week after receiving glue-up.

Good luck, Phill

Hi Donny, Ryan,

I do a fair bit of architectural carving for other carvers and manufacturers. Right now I am doing some carving on 32' beams (12" x 18") on a machine with only a 10' bed....

You might want to take a look at the (semi) clear 2" or 3" dust collectors hose sold at the major woodworking chains. (Woodcrafters is about $20 for a 10' piece) it is reinforced and made to take...

There is no problem canting the router at all. Obviously keep the limits this imposes in mind when programing your cuts.

Your plans sound quite feasible. If you choose components based on budget,...

Les,
The simplest way to clean up undercuts in my opinion is to run the simulation of the path you have already machined and the un-cut material will be obvious. Then use these areas to define your...

You can use the rotary axis as a positioning function and machine in any region in the entire model you would like. This would make the under cuts you need. You can also accomplish this by simply...

The attached rose is a production one that has been handled a lot laying around the shop and has the undercuts cleaned with a skew chisel. This particular one was done a 4 axis machine.

I do...

Hi Les,

The pencil trace routine takes the geometry of the cutter you have currently loaded and applies a tip path any where the bit will make contact with the model on the bottom and side at the...

Really nice machine Rab. Very impressive.

I felt like I won the lottery when I just got my fourth axis mods done to my 4 head router.

I have a seldom used 8' x 12' router that has a ton of...

I wonder if you could get your wife to believe that this will empty the cat litter box and take the trash out? :)

Cool toy! Thanks for sharing it.

If you would, send some photos offline to the email below.
Please include a few more specs such as the current Z travel and controller type.
Thanks, Phill

I can only speak from deep experience in Visual Mill, But I believe that most high end programs are going to have similar features.
I draw in Rhino making my models with multiple kinds of surfaces....

VM5 is a REAL improvement over the earlier versions.

I have been using VM for quite some time. It is a very capable program, but there is a lot of random personal discovery involved in mastering...

Just a few quick thoughts.

Rack and pinion is the only practical way to go. You have no error of accumulation on the long travel.

Regardless of the construction method, do a stress relief after...

If you are going to digitize "manually" in Rhino you need to rotate your construction plane a corresponding amount to the rotation of your original as you move it for digitizing. This will place the...

Multi Cam is a pretty good sized manufacturer of cnc routers of all descriptions. The fastest and most impressive of their machines was the spinning nut mechanism. I own an older unit ( three years...

Hi dcarr,

Thanks for letting us know about your product. It looks very interesting and capable.

I will not have time to check out the demo for a day or two.
Does it handle automated...

Mark, Know you get tired of hearing what a fantastic job you've done, But you have kept many of us sitting on the sidelines smiling fiercly for some time.

Congrats on a really cool machine and on...

I really don't cut much foam.
The feedrate in wood is going to be dependant on several factors. It will most often be determined by the diameter of the bit, angle of rake, releif, and torque...

Sounds like you have a decent game plan already in play. I second the advice to get it basically built then power it.

The hole drilling you are going to do can be accomplished with a smaller end...

Hi Hager, Really nice job.

Yes it is worth the trouble.
Anything you cut later that has to work with anything else you cut will double the apparent problem.

Even the softwares that...

Hi Samualt,

I use Rhino and Visual Mill 5 almost exclusively. VM would be a little expensive for a hobby, but if you intend to do carving, Rhino is must in my oinion. There may be other cam...

Hey, Balsaman, Looks good to me.

I use similar set ups in a commercial production shop daily.

If you are using a shop vac for the suction, you are depending on flow rather than pressure (...

I saw your parts on the other thread and would suggest the graphconllc conversion software, but this will still only get you the 2-d file.

The parts would be very easy to draw manually as well.
...

How large are your parts? If they are under 60" or so it can be digitized very quickly. Otherwise simply drawing 2-d work is very quick.

If you can scan them on a regular desktop scanner, the...

Slack in a system is often overcome in one direction only by the rotation of your cutter. This will present itself as a flat on one side only.

When doing test cuts, if possible, use a plotter pen...

Hey AJ, really nice design.

Any of the suggestions above are pretty feasable and potentially accurate, it is mostly decision/value time on your hardware. One of my favorite products that I produce...

I don't know about exporting control for a Portercable type router but I suspect it could be done. With a high frequency spindle ( i.e, Columbo ) it is a simple process of getting the command to the...

On your question about router vs spindle,

The high frequency spindles are far more expensive than routers. They also offer several advantages that I would have a hard time justifying for anything...