Had a crack at some moulds for carbon fibre rudders this weekend.  Finally getting a chance to use he machine for what I originally designed it to do.

Started out with two laminated sheets of 16mm MDF (32mm total)

Roughing pass with a 12.7mm straight flute router bit,

Then in with the 12mm ball mill.

Second half we just went straight in with the 12mm ball mill

We sanded and painted the mounds with epoxy and machined then again to the same profile the following day.

This finishing pass was 1.5mm step over with a 12mm ball mill at 45deg.

The moulds now require a hand sand and polish to bring them up to a good finish.  The section is a NACA63012A

New Desk

Its hard to do design work when you don't have a decent sized desk.  So why not make one? I was thinking of something with plenty of storage and is inspired by engineering concepts.

Engine Hoist Trolley

So needed a trolley that would fit between the legs of my engine crane so I could move my new/old metal lathe around.  Since I now have a CNC router, why not.  I also had a go at V-carving for engraving, which worked a treat.

Lost Foam Casting

This is something we started playing around with before we moved to making the CNC router.  Now that we have the router, we have access to patterns for sand casting or lost foam investment casting :)

The background of the first image shows the yellow foam shape pressed into the sand.  The furnace is made from an old 8kg gas bottle with refractory material typically used for pizza ovens.  The burner is a home made gas burner.

The casting was pretty messy, but it cleaned up alright with a grinder,

It made a nice lamp when coupled with a $20 lamp from kmart and a gear shaft from my mates Holden Astra gearbox that he blow up.  (Parts of the casing were melted down to form the base).

Having a go at some timber in-lay

My girlfriend and I decided we needed a shoe chest for the end of our bed.  So we draw something up and had a go.

Was pretty happy with the end result.

Engraving Carbon Fibre

I decided I needed a new, unique name plate for my desk at work.

I practiced on some aluminium first and was very happy with the clarity of the engraving.

I then needed to machine a nice and level base for the panel.  As any deviation in the surface directly effects the quality of the engraving.  The carbon fibre is some cheap cosmetic panels about 2mm thick from ebay.
The cutter is 60° included angle single flute, solid carbide.  The tip width is about 0.5mm.  Spindle speed was 24,000 RPM with a feed rate of about 600mm/min.  The trimming was done with a 1/8" carbide grouter remover bit from dremel.  (carbide grit burr)

New VFD enclosure, how does it go with aluminium?

Trial cuts on some aluminium off cuts seemed pretty good.



The panels cut well with a 3.2mm cutter at 18000 RPM with a feed rate of about 2000mm/min.  The depth of cut was limited to about 0.5mm as the machine isn't terribly stiff at the moment.



The 200 odd 2mm holes drilled extremely well.  One drill bit lasted the whole run.  Turns out the correct speeds and feeds make a huge difference.

Its new VFD time!

Since our first Huanyang VFD (variable frequency drive) packed it in, we had been running our 300W Ryobi trimming router. 

So we finally got our act together an ordered a new OMORN VFD.  The first cutting job was some 3D profiling of MDF to make my first CNC routed mould for composite parts.



Hacking into the chuck of MDF router a 6mm single flute end mill.  Followed by an 6mm ball mill for shaping,



Surface finish in the MDF after the first past at 0° the second image shows the finish after a pass at 45°


The MDF was treated with 3 coats of epoxy.  Then sanded back to a surprisingly smooth surface finish.  I was very happy with the quality of the mould surface.


Carbon fibre component being vacuum bagged.


Component released from the mould.


I then packed the part up in the mould by 3mm and ran a trace program with a 3.2mm carbide burr to cut out the part.


This finished part is a gooseneck fitting with mounts for lower stays on the one bracket.  This will be used on the sailing boat I built several years ago.