I built a kit from Madisound, which most importantly came with 'prefect' CNC cut panels which allowed for easy (and perfect) assembly. At $130/cabinet (before discounts for the kit), it seemed obvious they did a big run and were able to get some efficiencies.
Is it common to get plans and have a shop CNC cut material of your choosing for just one single pair?
I think it is less an issue of a shop that 'can' do it vs. one that will do it for anything approaching a reasonable cost. For a modest pair of small towers, I imagine you will pay a bare minimum of $200 on top of the materials. Further, if you brought them a design, it would need to be translated into a file the CNC machine could use (so maybe minimum of an hour of billable labor on top of the actual build time)?
To be clear, only talking about getting the pieces cut, not an assembled cabinet.
Is it common to get plans and have a shop CNC cut material of your choosing for just one single pair?
I think it is less an issue of a shop that 'can' do it vs. one that will do it for anything approaching a reasonable cost. For a modest pair of small towers, I imagine you will pay a bare minimum of $200 on top of the materials. Further, if you brought them a design, it would need to be translated into a file the CNC machine could use (so maybe minimum of an hour of billable labor on top of the actual build time)?
To be clear, only talking about getting the pieces cut, not an assembled cabinet.
I had a local cabinet maker make some cuts for a Woden Falcon build a while back. I'd say it's the way to go, they even supplied the 3/4" Russian Baltic Birch for me. Look at the plans, figure out the cuts yourself, and give them qty and dimensions, they'll do the rest. You could even have them insert dowel holes on the edges..it'll make things a whole lot easier (precise) when you glue it all together. I had the Falcon cut along with an L'stylo...was around 200USD. It's totally the way to go, if you don't have your own wood workshop, and want absolute precision.
-john
-john
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My experience with shops with "traditional" tools was - "Nothing less than 1/32" which is - 0.8mm :facepalm: You can ask for 1/64 (0.4mm - suxx big time but I can live with it) and they may promise it, but failed to deliver every time I tried.
So, if shop do not have CNC do not order in there.
Lucky you. Only decent formatter in GTA is at Home Depot. They have old Striebig models. In some stores they beat up over years and not cutting within 0.2mm@2m of the base. You need to 'base' first cut off the top or find the store where it is still OK. Also it is a huge difference who is operating the machine. I managed to cut to my preferred precision just twice and only because at that time I found an employee, young guy with good grasp in woodworking, who let me cut myself under his supervision during non busy hours.
Most of the time I cut panels juts to fit into the car and the rest I used to do my old workshop. It is really annoying situation and I planning to build my own vertical cutter in my next workshop.
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There’s a guy who runs a CNC router out of his house in Brampton, rarely any issues with the orders I’ve made. Great service always. Sawdust & Noise
And yes, unless you have a good table saw, router, circle cutting jig, and drill press, drawing up your plans and getting them CNCed is the way to go.
And yes, unless you have a good table saw, router, circle cutting jig, and drill press, drawing up your plans and getting them CNCed is the way to go.
Yeah, that was my concern. Guessing CNC should be 0.1mm at the very worst (unless there are issues with the machine or operator), and looking at how well my pieces snapped together, can't see how you would top that with non-CNC or a non-production setup (where they were doing a big run and were setting up jigs, doing test cuts, etc.)
Funny thing is I do business with a massive US company that builds wood products and can do anything. But not my place to have them do something for me (unless I want to get fired!)
Of course you could ask for everything to be +1mm then sand it to fit!!!
Funny thing is I do business with a massive US company that builds wood products and can do anything. But not my place to have them do something for me (unless I want to get fired!)
Of course you could ask for everything to be +1mm then sand it to fit!!!
Oh yeah, that would be the holy grail. Someone small-scale with the tools and techniques to do it like that (vs. a large shop where you are just an annoying low-dollar customer). Basically someone funding their hobby with some work on the side!
Difficult, but I use to do 0.2mm@2m in my shop
smaller parts not such a big problem to do within 0.1 but it is not simple. This is common misconception
particularly when you need to deal with angled cutsThanks I bookmarked them and will check them out as some baffles and sometimes braces are pain in the neck to make
Yepp
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Any decent CNC router will give you better than +/- 0.005" or 0.13 mm. When you consider that wood glue joints should have at least a 0.005" clearance, if not a 0.010" clearance, you start to realize that CNC tolerance isn't really an issue (except for maybe multi-part, multi-plane fitups).
I wouldn’t ask for anything else than what your plans call for, sanding won’t get you the results you want for much of anything other than maybe clearing some loose fibers away.
Will need some good clamps or some way to maintain the joints while glueing. Dowels are great for locating, but won’t hold things together.
Will need some good clamps or some way to maintain the joints while glueing. Dowels are great for locating, but won’t hold things together.
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I was going to try a CNC but in the end decided on the old method with a framing square and 6’ level as a guide
Back to back 1” MDF where the first one was used as a template to cut the bottom one
The original frames were made with a very cheap grade MDF with metal straps as cross members and steel L brackets top and bottom. Quite sure if they were made today, they would have gone this route since newer models are of similiar construction
These are new frames for Apogee Scintilla,s
regards
David
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