The best tool I own is probably my Lie-Nielson block plane. I've been taking some time lately to hone my sharpening skills and encountered the idea of building my own hand planes. It's a very attractive idea since good handplanes are anywhere from very to extremely expensive, and being able to make my own would allow me to build any variation of specialty plane I might want to try. Plus, my CNC router makes forming the basic shapes as easy as digitizing my idea into CAM software.
The g-code for a detailed aztec calendar is a well-known benchmark around cnczone.com. To cut this pattern, the machine has to make thousands of movements staying within a few hundredths accurate. I tried cutting one for my parents' xmas present from some nice brazilian cherry. I joined two planks to get the required 16" width, flattened the top and sprayed a light coat of polyurethane to help avoid chipping during the lighter detail passes. Next time I would apply a thick layer of poly since a few detailed places show some chipping.
Here is cutting a little drawer that turned out great.
I inadvertently learned that this FLA-100 clone will cut steel when my 1/4" carbide tool path intersected one of the 5/16" washers I was using to hold down the work. At 60ipm there was an ugly chatter but no steps were skipped and the job completed perfectly. I'm pretty excited about trying some aluminum now.
This made for a perfect "first cuts" project with my router. One learns a lot of things quickly in the first few hours operating a router like this. Work has to be held down very firmly to produce the shape accurately. And a cable tray like the Dragon is very necessary to keep cables safely away from the bit and from being stretched across parts of the machine.
Motors installed and wired to controller / controller connected to PC. I jogged each axis end to and repeatedly to shift things into place, tightening a little each trip. Things are looking pretty well square after building a sharpie holder and jogging in large rectangles. Here is an old javascript/easelJS drawing pattern I made, now adapted to output g-code. Router mount on the way. For now, I have an overly powerful plotter / sharpie ruiner.
This oak motor mount corrects for the difference between metric extrusions in the base and standard bearing blocks and acme nut. Controller and motors on the way.
The last package of mechanical parts arrived. Y and Z axis parts. A few hours of assembly/alignment and I'll be ready for electronics.
The last package of mechanical parts arrived. Y and Z axis parts.
