Just finished a challenge

[John Jimenez]

My son and his cousin challenged me to make them something that would hold their Xbox games. The challenge was that it had to be from scraps in my shop and had to be something that they could use in their college apartments. They suggested a shelf or small book case but I was worried about it tipping over especially if it had doors on it. I wanted it to be more functional and sturdy. My mother in law had found two nightstands put out for trash and gave them to me. They were made of real wood (not sure the species but it’s probably whatever they have in Indonesia because that’s where the nightstands were made). I used the legs, tops and drawers from the night stand, used some left over pin oak scraps from the last table I made for the rails, and 1/4 maple plywood for the panels. I’ve never made any furniture with dowel joinery only mortise and tenon so I decided to give the dowels a try. I have a self centering dowel jig and used 3/8” dowels. Only challenge with the dowels was drilling to the proper depth. I didn’t at the time have an stop collars so used the tape trick with varying success. Painted the legs and rails, used Rubio monocoat on the top and panels, lacquer on the inside and on the game caddy’s. The game caddy’s hold 14 games each and are removable. Carved the Xbox symbol and initials with my bobscnc machine. Thanks for looking and constructive critique always welcomed and encouraged.

 

[bowman]

Nicely done John!

 

[Wilsoncb]

I like, nice and stout. Are you going to pour some epoxy into the carvings?

 

[JNCarr]

Nice job of recycling - I'll bet those are much more than they expected. Well done.

 

[HITCH-]

Well done Sir!

 

[kserdar]

One critique - Why are the curved letters of your carving not smooth like the x-box design?

 

[Oka]

Very Nice ! ........ I am so out of it ....... took me a sec to remember what an Xbox did .......

 

[ssmith]

Interesting purpose-built boxes! They turned out really well, and are a far better use of the material than the dump.

 

[John Jimenez]

One critique - Why are the curved letters of your carving not smooth like the x-box design?

Great question Ken. I noticed that and was curious too. I am far from skilled at my CNC. I suspect that because I was using a 1/8” bit instead of the 1/16” bit and based on the size of the letter maybe that was the best the machine could do. The letters looked properly curved on the preview.

 

[John Jimenez]

I like, nice and stout. Are you going to pour some epoxy into the carvings?

I had actually thought about pouring black tinted epoxy in the logo and lettering…..but then I was just ready to be done with these and move on to the next project

 

[Cedarmills]

My son and his cousin challenged me to make them something that would hold their Xbox games. The challenge was that it had to be from scraps in my shop and had to be something that they could use in their college apartments. They suggested a shelf or small book case but I was worried about it tipping over especially if it had doors on it. I wanted it to be more functional and sturdy. My mother in law had found two nightstands put out for trash and gave them to me. They were made of real wood (not sure the species but it’s probably whatever they have in Indonesia because that’s where the nightstands were made). I used the legs, tops and drawers from the night stand, used some left over pin oak scraps from the last table I made for the rails, and 1/4 maple plywood for the panels. I’ve never made any furniture with dowel joinery only mortise and tenon so I decided to give the dowels a try. I have a self centering dowel jig and used 3/8” dowels. Only challenge with the dowels was drilling to the proper depth. I didn’t at the time have an stop collars so used the tape trick with varying success. Painted the legs and rails, used Rubio monocoat on the top and panels, lacquer on the inside and on the game caddy’s. The game caddy’s hold 14 games each and are removable. Carved the Xbox symbol and initials with my bobscnc machine. Thanks for looking and constructive critique always welcomed and encouraged.

That's Awesome!!! Way to go!

 

[kserdar]

Great question Ken. I noticed that and was curious too. I am far from skilled at my CNC. I suspect that because I was using a 1/8” bit instead of the 1/16” bit and based on the size of the letter maybe that was the best the machine could do. The letters looked properly curved on the preview.

Size of the bit wouldn't change the vectors used to make the letters.
Were you looking at the letters on a much smaller scale? Then expanded them for the cuts.
It has to do with nodes and how the lines between nodes are made.
Yours look like straight lines between nodes .... should have been circular arcs or Bezier curves.

 

[John Jimenez]

Size of the bit wouldn't change the vectors used to make the letters.
Were you looking at the letters on a much smaller scale? Then expanded them for the cuts.
It has to do with nodes and how the lines between nodes are made.
Yours look like straight lines between nodes .... should have been circular arcs or Bezier curves.

Thanks Ken. Good point if the same size bit did perfect circle on the logo. I’m using bobscnc cadcam and Gcode sender. I’m going to contact them to inquire so I can learn how to avoid that in the future.

 

[mkepke]

Thanks Ken. Good point if the same size bit did perfect circle on the logo. I’m using bobscnc cadcam and Gcode sender. I’m going to contact them to inquire so I can learn how to avoid that in the future.

Bob - recommend you troubleshoot backwards:

Look at your gcode in something like ncviewer.com. It the choppiness there?

If yes, go back a step and looking at CAM project file in simulation. Is the choppiness there?

If yes go back and look at the CAD drawing and zoom in or scale up the letters. Is the choppiness there?

If yes, go back to the step where you first added the text and see if the choppiness is there.

That should pinpoint which step introduced the choppiness.

For example, this choppiness would be expected if you imported the text as a dxf file.

-Mark