Eminence Lab12, ported box

[drumsz]

Sweet !

[jason_watkins]

@layertone

Very nice looking work. I'm just getting rolling with CNC for some speaker projects and would love any tips you have.

- I notice you're using mortice and tenon joints such that the overcut from the mill's radius is hidden. What sort of mortice depth and tenon width should I look at using for baltic?

- The braces have a nice radius. Was that done milling both sides or with a router later? If milled, how do you register the piece again once flipped?

- I'll check into ArtCAM. What CAD are you using?

[layertone]

Originally Posted by jason_watkins

@layertone

Very nice looking work. I'm just getting rolling with CNC for some speaker projects and would love any tips you have.

- I notice you're using mortice and tenon joints such that the overcut from the mill's radius is hidden. What sort of mortice depth and tenon width should I look at using for baltic?

- The braces have a nice radius. Was that done milling both sides or with a router later? If milled, how do you register the piece again once flipped?

- I'll check into ArtCAM. What CAD are you using?

Thank you Jason! What kind of CNC router, router/spindle do you have & what hold-down method are you using?

The absolute best tip i can give you is use a compression bit! I use 1/4" & 3/8". Searched everywhere & the folks at Centurion Tools price is the lowest & excellent quality. I have it setup to run @ ~ 140 inches / min feed, .25 stepdown

Centurion Tools

I've always used a depth of 1/4" for the dato / "mortise", with pre-drilled holes on the mounting side.

The braces are rounded off with a regular 1/4" roundover on a router table. it's difficult align it back up on the CNC.

ArtCAM Pro is an awesome CAM program (i have the older 7 version). It can do v-bit carving, 3D reliefs & i think even rotary milling as well. I use AutoCAD 2005 for most of the drawings, save it as AutoCAD 2000 format, then import into ArtCAM for programming toolpaths.

[jason_watkins]

@layertone

It's a Dyna CNC 4'x24' machine at a local co-op workshop. They're using Mach3 to control it. I'm not sure how the base plates attach to the machine, but it looks like most people are just using an mdf sheet as a base, then just screwing their work piece down to it. The machine has dogs and various clamps but they seem less popular.

For two sided machining I was thinking I could do something like have the mill drill two registration holes near the edge of the work piece down into the base sheet a bit, then when I flip the work piece I could use dowels through the holes to reposition it back in the same spot.

A compression bit is a downcut bit? Thanks for the tip on a bit source and speeds.

What do you mean by pre-drilled holes on the mounting side?

I'll check out the AutoCAD / ArtCAM combination. Right now I'm playing with trial versions of Solidworks and Alibre. Solidworks looks very powerful but more intended for metal mechanical assemblies. Alibre looks quite good for the price but has quirks. I'd really like to find a CAD/CAM solution that has woodworking specific features like layered construction or automatic cut sheet layout. Cut3D seems to do the layered thing, but not the rest.

There's certainly a lot to learn but I'm so full of ideas of things to do now that I have access to this tool