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So, here’s one that I cranked out this weekend! Made for a rather fun project, and finally got some success in the attempt to build a rotating ink stand. The last attempt didn’t work out so well, the X-Carve didn’t hold tolerances well enough to do the job as well as I wanted, and the quality of the overall build came out poorly. Just didn’t like it much.
Sooooo, new try! I went back to the drawing board for method entirely, and made this one out of cherry, just for a bit of difference. Works great!
That looks great Dan, I am always envious of how perfect your edge finishes come out. I know I have probably asked you this before, but what tool are you using?
I also like how your laser cutter is doing double duty as a display case.
It does a good job as a display stand, doesn’t it? lol I have my biggest shop lights hanging directly over it, so that’s where my photos usually end up being taken.
And thanks! This is done with a Freud two-flute upshear spiral, running at about ~3.5 on the speed dial, I wait for it to start cutting, then adjust it until it sounds nice and smooth. The passes were .250 deep running at 60ipm and a .100 step-over on the inside of the pockets, using a HSM toolpath (about the max I can take, the router sounds slightly labored, not too bad), with a .200 stepover finishing pass across the bottom of the pockets removing .020, and a wall finishing with two passes removing .015" each at 40ipm. The outside was cut at 60ipm, using .125 stepdowns and the same tool. It also had two finishing passes, these were .020 each at 40ipm. After machining, the outside was very lightly sanded at 320 on my oscillating spindle sander, just enough to remove the slight toolmarks that you can see, they largely appear on outside corners for me. The long-wall finish is gorgeous right off the machine.
EDIT: Incidentally, what looks like chatter on those inner pocket walls actually isn’t, it’s a rather neat-looking variation in the wood grain. The wall surface is smooth and clean to the touch.
No, I actually gave that a shot at one point, and it worked well enough, but I can actually do it faster on the router table. Part of that is that by doing the chamfers on the table, I have my tabs set to be just smaller than the chamfer I use. So I just use a chisel to break the tabs, then the remains router away really neatly as I put the chamfer around.
My order of operations post-machining is:
1: Cut tabs with chisel.
2: Router table to add chamfers.
3: Sand with the Oscillating spindle to clean up any remaining tool marks.
4: Router table again, to clean up chamfers and remove any burns from the first rough run.
Great idea on recessing the lazy susan bearing! Makes it easy to center the bearing and gets the top that much closer to the table. Did you use hot glue to secure the bearing to the material?
Thanks! That second point was more the reason for it, really, I didn’t want it to sit high off of the surface. The bearing is only projecting about .030" at the moment, the rest of the height are the rubber feet.
The bearing is secured with five-minute epoxy, actually. I was going to use screws, but placing them would be somewhat tricky, so as not to break through into the bottom of the top pockets, the floor there is only .250 thick. It would work fine if I set them into the heavier portions between the pockets, but epoxy is just simpler and easier.
