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Week 7: COMPUTER COTNROLLED MACHINING

Group Assignment

Complete your lab’s safety training
Test runout, alignment, fixturing, speeds, feeds, materials and toolpaths for your machine
Document your work to the group work page and reflect on your individual page what you learned

Individual Assignment

Make (design+mill+assemble) something big

WEEK 5 WORK ORGANIZATION

Group Assignments
Furniture Material Design
Creating Vectors in VCarve pro for CAM software
Furniture Manufacturing with CNC shopbot
Origonal Design files

The group assignment can be found here on the fabalab page

Furniture Material Design

my design idea: Floating and hanging shelves

Floating and hanging shelves can be a great addition to your home decor, providing both style and functionality. Here are some use cases for floating and hanging shelves:

#	Use Case
1	Displaying Decorative Items
2	Storing Books
3	Creating a Focal Point
4	Maximizing Space
5	Adding Functionality

image_missing — floating and hanging shelves example that inspired my design

Extruding base boss to create a rigid body of the base

Creating vertical hanging joint

creating a node to fit in the female joint

Extrude bas boss to have a rigid body to fit in the first base and second one

Creating Vectors in VCarve pro for CAM software

To cut the different parts of the material , we have to use CAM softaware

Automating a production process via the use of software and computer-controlled equipment is known as computer aided manufacturing (CAM). a CAM system requires the following three elements to operate:

Software that creates toolpaths to instruct a machine on how to build a product.
Industrial equipment capable of transforming raw materials into final goods.
Toolpaths are translated into a language that machines can understand during post processing.

VCarve Pro is a software package designed for creating and producing CNC (Computer Numerical Control) toolpaths for a wide range of CNC machines, including ShopBot CNC routers.

VCarve Pro allows users to create 2D and 3D designs using a wide range of tools and features. we can import designs in various formats, including vector files, bitmap images, and 3D models. Once a design is imported or created, VCarve Pro allows us to manipulate and edit the design to create the desired output.

When used with a ShopBot CNC router, VCarve Pro allows users to generate toolpaths for the machine to follow. T hese toolpaths are based on the design created in VCarve Pro and provide instructions for the ShopBot CNC router to carve or cut the design into the material being used. VCarve Pro is able to generate toolpaths for a variety of operations, including profiling, pocketing, drilling, and v-carving.

Using VCarve pro to create toolpath for my design

When you open VCarve , you willl see where to open new file. then you have to set job size which is normaly the size of your CNC Working area. our shopbot cnc has 2440mm x 1220mm. After that we select the thickness of the material we want to cut. for us we have used MDF of 9mm of width

grouping all items to cut in the cnc working area and make an arrangement

usung dog-bone fillet. The dog-bone fillet is typically used in CNC machining and woodworking applications where a high level of precision and accuracy is required. Without the fillet, the cutter may not be able to fully reach into the corners, resulting in incomplete cuts and inaccurate shapes. To add a dog-bone fillet in VCarve Pro, you can use the "Create Dogbone Fillet" tool, which is located in the "Edit Objects" section of the software. here used fillet having imm of radius

Cutting parameters :

Parameter	Definition
Number of Passes	The number of times the tool will cut over the same area.
Pass Depth	The depth that the tool will cut into the material during each pass.
Stepover	The distance the tool will travel side-to-side in between each cut.
Spindle Speed	The speed at which the spindle or router will rotate.
Feed Rate	The speed at which the tool moves through the material during cutting.
Plunge Rate	The speed at which the tool moves down into the material at the beginning of a cut.

Setting number of passes

setting machine vectors. you can either go outdside of material, inside or on which goes straight to the line

Then we click on calculate (1) and we get the worning (2). the worning is that we have selected material thickness of 9mm and we set the toolpath depth of 9.3 mm . because we have another mdf and the material to be cut there is no problem for this worning for us . but it is important to take this into consideration

The pathlist created will take 36 minutes and 30 seconds to complete.

Then we have to save toolpats (1) and save toolpath (2). At this point we are ready to send g-code in cnc

Saving the G-code (2) before sending the g-code in the CNC router

Furniture Manufacturing with CNC shopbot

PRSalpha 96-48-8 with 4'x8' shopbot available in fablab rwanda

PRSalpha shopbot Specifications

Specifications	Values
Work Area	96" x 48" x 6" (2438mm x 1219mm x 152mm)
Spindle	3.0hp HSD Spindle
Spindle Speed	7,000 - 24,000 RPM
Cutting Speed	600 inches per minute (25 meters per minute)
Repeatability	+/- .001" (.025mm)
Drive System	Precision Ball Screws
Control System	ShopBot PRSalpha Control System
Software Compatibility	PartWorks3D, VCarve Pro, Vectric Aspire, Fusion 360, and more
Power Requirements	220 VAC, Single Phase, 30 Amp
Weight	1,500 lbs (680 kg)

Shopbot Control Software

The ShopBot Control Software is a proprietary software package developed by ShopBot Tools, Inc. It is a CNC control software that runs on a PC and is used to control ShopBot CNC r outers and other ShopBot CNC machines. The software includes a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows the user to interact with the machine and create, edit, and run CNC programs.

shopbot cnc control softaware. we use this to control cnc positions (all axis ) and send job to cnc

fixing 9mm width mdf material on cnc bed

Final Manufacutred Hanging material

This is final assembly with background removed