Vises are one of my Vices
almost a year ago I wrote about This. Well, there is still a fair amount to do until it is complete, but as of yesterday, it managed to produce its first test part! Nothing too complex, just a simple pocket cut out of mahogany. But that pocket was modeled in Solidworks, then run through VisualMill to generate toolpaths, then handed off into The Machine for production.
The machine now looks like this, with the router spindle attached (it's a Porter Cable 892 2-1/4 HP unit):
There is also a small R8-type spindle that can be mounted as well, that will be using Tormach quick-change
tooling. At some point in the far future, i may try to build an automatic tool-changer.
Here is the first piece, in the vise, after being routed out:
And out of the vise:
Note lack of any real shielding; so only wood test pieces for now.[Wood dust getting into the control electronics just means i need to vaccuum it out. Not so with aluminum chips!] But w00t! It is starting to look like this beast is actually going to be useable!
The machine now looks like this, with the router spindle attached (it's a Porter Cable 892 2-1/4 HP unit):
There is also a small R8-type spindle that can be mounted as well, that will be using Tormach quick-change
tooling. At some point in the far future, i may try to build an automatic tool-changer.
Here is the first piece, in the vise, after being routed out:
And out of the vise:
Note lack of any real shielding; so only wood test pieces for now.[Wood dust getting into the control electronics just means i need to vaccuum it out. Not so with aluminum chips!] But w00t! It is starting to look like this beast is actually going to be useable!