@James1949 Sorry I should have given the source of the image files I used. I gave both because when you are using V0.9+(which V1.1f is current) they had switched pin 11 and 12 so 12 is now the Z limit switch connection and 11 is a PWM pin for variable spindle control. Since I am using a Bosch Colt router which currently is stock, so I have only the onboard dial for speed control and an on/off switch, I have added a solid state relay to control an outlet that my router is plugged into( and hopefully soon my shopvac!). So I need the old functionallity of spindle enable/disable verses variable spindle PWM control, so I opened the config.h file of GRBL and searched for this line "#define VARIABLE_SPINDLE // Default enabled. Comment to disable." which on github is showing as line 339. If you comment it out by putting two slashes in front of it (//), save the file and then upload GRBL which will compile with that change to your Arduino, it will now cause your V1.1f Arduino to be pinned to the V0.8 pinnout. So I now use pin 12 for spindle enable/disable and pin 11 for Z limit switch.

 

Made a "few" clamps today out of a 2' x 2' piece of birch plywood. I uploaded them as a project you can find here. I also picked up the parts I need to make a cheap dust collector out of a 5 gallon bucket and a phono plug and socket to wire up my touch off plate. Just need to cut out two circles from the other plywood piece I picked up to support the top of the bucket where I plumb in the 2" PVC pipe, another project for my new router!!

 

So I used the router to cut out four circles for the dust collector, just to have a spare set. I should have went a little bit bigger for the holes for the 2" pipe but the file worked it out.Cemented two pieces of wood to the top with Liquid Nails and then drove in a few screws. I then cut the 2" PVC pipe and glued the adapters in place and added more Liquid Nails to fill the gaps. Just waiting for it to dry and then I might be able to test it tonight if not tomorrow. Still need to wire up my touch off plate but that's a later project, also need to start on a dust shoe.

 

After dealing with computer issues and a few days where I didn't even get to step foot in my garage, this morning I got up early and decided I need to to make more sawdust!! I finished putting everything together for the dust collection and it works great! Have a couple new bits on the way like this and this, along with some magnets and 1/2" sheet of HDPE. I'm planing on using the HDPE to make my new dust shoe and cut it out with the O-flute bit, going to put the router on 1 and hope for the best.

This morning's project is going to be used as the cupcake display for my wedding. My wife is a huge Ohio State football fan and so me being from Maryland originally, I decided to make a football field with the team nicknames in the end zone to have our big cupcake on and then the smaller cupcakes will be setup on some bleachers that I also have to make. I think it came out really well, but feel like I should cut the yard lines out with a 1/4" bit instead of a 1/8" bit. The plan is to paint the words and lines white and then the field green, my friend told me of a great idea to paint the white first a few coats, then fill them in with play-doh so I can paint the field green. A lot easier I think then the ideas I had.

 

Came home to a shipment of the HDPE, so after cooking some dinner I started making the dust shoe. Freecad path was kicking my butt for a while till I figured out that I needed to move my piece down buy the height of the stock. I'm still learning the path section of Freecad with all the options and settings, so needless to say some of the parts came out a bit wrong, though it will be useable. I really need to find a good collection of programs to go from design to actual part in Linux, so far Inkscape to Makercam has allowed me to make my cleanest parts. To finish this dust shoe I need to pick up some CA glue on the way home tomorrow.

 

Finished up the dust shoe after picking up some glue. Hopefully tomorrow I can rig up something to hold the hose up out of the way. Then I can put on the new spoilboard and should be ready to get back to making wood chips.

 

Well the dust shoe didn't pass it's first test. It seems I didn't take in consideration about where it sits below the router in relation to where the collet nut is, so while the upper part is mounted I can't get my wrench onto the spindle to hold it while working the collet nut. So off it came, will have to start working on another design soon.

In my quest to find what works for me for design to cam to gcode, I have tried a bunch of different things and still am not completely happy. That being said I tried and think I can live with doing lettering work with F-Engrave. It seems to be easy to work with and the image import to v-carve function makes me think of some very cool cut ideas. As for Sketchup/Sketchucam, I've had nothing but headaches with Sketchup. It wants to spawn 1 million wine browsers some of the times I open it, and it either spins forever or just plain crashes when I try to add the Sketchucam plugin. I know these are neither Sketchup or Sketchucam's faults, I am trying to run it on something they aren't designed for. So I'm currently using Freecad to design in and since I can't seem to figure out why the path section makes the gcode change the size of my part I am saving my freecad work into a DXF file and opening that up in Estlcam.

Below is some pictures of the F-Engrave word testing I was doing.



This is a picture of the test piece I'm working on to mount the 7" raspberry pi touch screen into the photobooth setup I'm making for my wedding.

 

After a quick trip to Lowes for a 1/2" pine board, I present a completed piece to hold the touchscreen. I still have to decide if I'm going to build the whole thing out of pine or something else, but for this cut I am happy with the cut.

 

So today I was playing a bit more with F-Engrave, this time with the image side of the program. Basically you open a black and white line drawing of something that is in bmp format, then tell it to calculate and out pops your gcode. After it cut and I then added some black spray paint and some sanding.

 

@shelbylewis I have to say I find this design very sturdy. I need to stop being lazy and surface my spoilboard, that will fix my only inaccuracy. I have been a bit rough with my cuts a few times as I documented with the collet break video, and this machine handled it all with ease.

So for my up coming wedding I am starting to work on a design for a few groomsmen boxes. It's going to be using 1"x8"x2' boards of oak from Lowes. For a test and possibly to sell later, I designed a smaller box that I can cut everything out of one board. The first attempt didn't go exactly to plan. I started a little to far down the board and the last cut was in the air as it cut into 2 of my clamps.



I've redesigned my cut file to move the bigger pieces into the middle so I have more room for my clamps. I will also be trying the test of flipping the board after the cutouts to do some vcarving for more decorations.

 

The other night I was looking on Pinterest and came across a few cool things that I would like to make. While on there, the future wife saw something that she thought would be great for a host gift for her bridal shower. It's a three tier wine bottle holder that is shaped like an over-sized wine bottle. I picked up a 1/2" x 2' x 2' piece of oak plywood from Lowes and designed a cut file that will cut everything out in one go. I did have to do some manual gcode work because I screwed up when working in Estlcam, it seemed that I didn't pay attention to the fact that when I added the "WINE" lettering it was set to 1mm DOC. So I copied the gcode doing the lettering and added it multiple times changing the DOC down to 12.7mm. I also manually combined 2 different gcode files so I only have to open one file to cut everything.

 

So I have been slacking on posting here....but not of making wood chips and broken clamps!!! This will just be a picture fest, hope you guys enjoy.

 

Yes I have a few clamps that are now an inch or so shorter than when they started. You can see that I lost clamping completely on one side in the picture of the no worries no hurries sign. Thankfully I was right there when it happened and I just finished the cut with me holding it down with my hands. I believe I am going to stay with the plywood clamps and avoid metal, I like my bits to much for that!!

 

On the left side viewing from the front of the machine I have a corner bracket that uses one of the holes that is threaded for a possible stepper mount. Hopefully this picture below will show it better.



As for the other side I am using a three hole joining plate
one end sits in the c channel and against the side plate and the other end sits under the rail that the wire track is sitting on. Hopefully you can see that in this picture.



I hope that helps for what you are asking for, if not let me know and hopefully I can help some more.

 

Just wanted to post some pictures of what I've been working on lately.

 

So some more pictures...



@Kyo I've been thinking lately that I would love to get a bit more out of the Z axis. I saw this Thread and had a different idea I would like to run by you. The plates at the front and the back of the Y axis I could mount to 2 runs of 20x40 per plate since that is what the holes seem to line up with and then on the bottom they would attach to the original bottom frame with angle brackets. The 20x40 would be on the outside of the plate, so I wouldn't have to modify my current spoilboard, but would give me room to make a larger one. Then I could use some 20x80 and angle brackets to tie the Y axis runs to the sides of the bottom frame. I'm just wondering if that will be sturdy enough. I'm currently and probably 98% of the time will always just be doing wood work.