StevenZ's Alpair 12P Build

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StevenZ

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Joined 2010
#1
Well folks, it has begun. I got a little time this weekend to draw up some Alpair 12P Standard Pensils, and threw it into the CNC router. I took a video for you guys to see how quickly my CNC router cut out the entire enclosure with internal bracing. I ended up scrapping the bracing you see being cut out at the beginning of the video because I wasn't happy with they way they came out. Anyways, here's the video. Enjoy!

Mark Audio Alpair 12P - CNC Router - YouTube

Cheers,
Steven
 
#4
Well, it's mine to use as I please but I am not the owner. It's my Father's machine for his custom cabinetry business.

How much do they run? Well.. this one cost a couple hundred thousand. But I'm sure you can find them cheaper. 😉
 
#9
Well folks, not all that glitters is gold. I started the build immediately after the parts were cut out and apparently the CNC router isn't cutting all too accurately at the moment. All of my parts were almost 1/16" short which compounded into big problems. I double checked the programming process to make sure I accounted for tool offsets and all that stuff so I'm 100% positive it wasn't on my end. I'll have a tech out here later on today to calibrate the machine back to spec.

Unfortunately that was an $80 piece of domestic hickory plywood that just went to waste. Looks like I'll have to do it the good ol' fashioned way on this one. Time to dust off the hand routers and panel saw. 🙂

Cheers,
Steven
 
#16
yup - it only takes a teeny error in one line of possibly hundreds of lines of program code to mess y'all up pretty good

and of course all the run time simulations in the world won't tell whether the pieces that come of the CNC will actually fit together

then of course there's the "oops, the material's not actually the thickness we thought, or it varies from one sheet to the next in a lift of 40, or even within the same sheet - and only a fraction of a mm is enough "
 
#17
chrisb said:
yup - it only takes a teeny error in one line of possibly hundreds of lines of program code to mess y'all up pretty good

and of course all the run time simulations in the world won't tell whether the pieces that come of the CNC will actually fit together

then of course there's the "oops, the material's not actually the thickness we thought, or it varies from one sheet to the next in a lift of 40, or even within the same sheet - and only a fraction of a mm is enough "
Click to expand...

So all in all, there's nothing more reliable than the tried and tested methods of the non-CNC crowd? 😀

Just thinking aloud - since StevenZ has already cut the parts and 1/16" is around 1.6mm, maybe it's worth a shot to glue up the pieces instead of trashing them? Not a perfect Super Pensil, but will be very close? If it's great sounding, then you can always make another one.
 
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#19
It all depends on where that 1/16" is. Personally, I can do better than 1/32" on long cuts on my table saw, but I can't do reliable crosscuts on the end of long boards. And I don't care. I make sure the sides/back/front are a little long and use a trim bit in a router to square things up.

When I cut into a 4x8 panel, I set up the layout so that the end cuts all line up. I then have all of the panels at least the same length. I can get the crosscut dead square, but the length floating by the width of the pencil mark and how even the end I measure from is. I then do the cut with a circular saw with a nice Freud blade in it.

Bob
 
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