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  #1  
Old Fri 25 January 2008, 08:31
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
Pencil or pen mounting

For the folk who want to save money on breaking bits with the first baby steps:


A piece of steel strip bent like a leafspring - it is very forgiving of mistakes

Consider an erasable whiteboard marker . . . . . . .

(That was 7 years ago on this machine - our original ShopBot with die grinder)
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  #2  
Old Fri 25 January 2008, 11:05
Doug_Ford
Just call me: Doug #3
 
Conway (Arkansas)
United States of America
Outstanding idea!!!! I'll make one up this week. Not only will it help me save money on broken bits but also on wasted medium density fiberboard in the early stages. Thanks Gerald.
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  #3  
Old Fri 25 January 2008, 12:35
smreish
Just call me: Sean - #5, 28, 58 and others
 
Orlando, Florida
United States of America
Doug,
Another good trick is actually mount a spring loaded (clickie type BIC pen) in the collet. A little tape around the barrel makes it fit nicely in a .50 collet.
Happy Drawing on your huge pen plotter

Don't tell anyone, but I still use this method for making full size pattern/templates for shop guys to build to! 3mm Luaun is cheaper than paper. If I keep the shop from thinking, I have 1/2 a chance of getting right!

Last edited by smreish; Fri 25 January 2008 at 12:37..
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  #4  
Old Fri 25 January 2008, 16:19
Doug_Ford
Just call me: Doug #3
 
Conway (Arkansas)
United States of America
Excellent tip Sean. Thanks a million.
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  #5  
Old Fri 25 January 2008, 21:17
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
A clicky BIC in the collet is easy. Just prevent the spindle/router from turning if the BIC is a bit off-center.

It is actually a good learning experience to work with a "tool" that is not in line with the collet. It is a common misperception that everything MUST be collet mounted for a CNC router. eg. Touch probes have round shanks so that they must be collet mounted.....there is more space if they were mounted off-center. Going "off-center" makes you learn x,y coordinate tricks, plus opens your mind to placing a few tools on the y-carriage. . . . .

(Most interesting off-center tool is a down pointing laser dot - position the dot on a reference point, run mini-program and router bit moves reference position.......think about it....)

And then a new discussion followed
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  #6  
Old Sun 23 November 2008, 18:09
domino11
Just call me: Heath
 
Cornwall, Ontario
Canada
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerald D View Post
Going "off-center" makes you learn x,y coordinate tricks, plus opens your mind to placing a few tools on the y-carriage. . . . .
Have you ever had more than one tool on a Y carriage on any of your machines? Do you have any plans for multiple tools in your new stable of MMs?
I cant seem to find anyone using more than one active (cutting) tool on the Y carriage. (laser pointers and pens excluded.)
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  #7  
Old Sun 23 November 2008, 20:03
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
No, I havn't had multiple tools under the control of Mach.
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