Freebie – heart box (10/21/20)

I’ll be adding a weekly version of Freebie files. Enjoy

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10tXoY8HBCaDIQm9jW0-RaDh0FeRuEqC7/view?usp=sharing

This is for the people that see something on facebook and would like to create it. It is a great way to learn your software. This is done in aspire, but is the same for vcarve. This was made with small leftover

I’ll be stepping through how i made this, with a bit of detail and then give the files.

This was created as a test for my newest machine, onefinity. Great machine, 32 1/8″ x 32 1/8″ cutting size. fast, well made, and does not require computer at the machine to run.

Material – This used a 6″ x 8″ piece of .81 thick walnut.

Good thing about a CNC is flexibility in adapting to the wood you have. This scales to about anything that you have laying around. Great way to surprise your significant other with jewelry, or tickets to a game, etc or just a place to take off you rings every day and store them inside without them getting knocked around or dirty.

I secured my wood with 3 pieces of blue painters tape vertical and used CA gel glue and accelerator. I found that on a newer smoother waste board, that this holds about as well as anything.

This starts with these vectors

The file is pocketed on the inside of both inner hearts. I did this starting at 0 and to .75*z . This is what I enter into the cutting depth box on vcarve / aspire. I also chose offset on this but if you have a wood that chips out easy, sometimes it is better to so raster(not cross the grain) and then do a final profile pass either at the end or the beginning. This was cut at 75 ipm on feed and 35 on speed. The depth per pass was 1/4″, or 1 tool diameter.


Next, a profile cut on the middle heart on the bottom. This was from 0 to .375 deep. This would have been fine at .25 as well. This will affect the overall height of the box when assembled.

This cut was with .25 inch upcut endmill, outside of vector, conventional. I did add spiral ramp, so speed was set at 140 feed, 140 plunge, with .125 pass depth. This allows me to have it increase rate of cut in smooth helix. I like the finish on these cuts. Important: the plunge rate is the feed rate on spiral ramp, until it hits bottom on last pass, then it will change to feed rate. That is why i made both of these the same. The ramp is set by the pass depth and length of cut. The plunge rate is how fast it travels around that length.

The next pass is the profile cut out pass. I used a .125 inch compression bit from ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8-Compression-Bit-for-cnc-to-cut-plywood-Made-In-Korea-high-quality/264526762192?hash=item3d970610d0:g:jYoAAOSwDYZdxhLo

These are cheap, they do break easy but they are magic. I push them and full depth cuts and unless the wood is too hard, they just cut.

Starting depth 0 and z+.003 to make sure I make it all the way. I do this in single pass, at 150 ipm. 16,000 rpm. it will pack the space in between and does not really make in dust.

Ramp and Feed are both 100, doing a spiral ramp, outside cut, single pass, conventional . Total time of cut is aprox 7 min. Super easy, and a good project to make somthing out of your scaps. Also try this with other things as well. different shapes and different ideas, text, square, oval, etc. use a roundover bit and roundover the upper edge. Try engraving something on the inside top, or bottom. Make sure and account for thd diamter of the collet nut or it will cause problems. If so, try a long reach bit for engraving.