Skill Builder: MasterCam and CNC Routing
Week 4 Skill Builder:
Since I moved to New York I haven’t had to buy many household basics because I’ve moved in with roommates or into furnished sublets, but at the end of October I’m most likely moving into an empty spot. Thinking about this I realized there’s lot of things I’m going to need to get. One such being a spoon rest. I decided to use this weeks skill builder to attempt to make one myself.
Supply List
Wood
Digital Calipers
1/4” Straight End Mill
Safety glasses and ear plugs
USB
VectorWorks
MasterCAM
CNC Router
Router Table
Sandpaper
Process:
I started looking at some spoon rest images online to get some inspiration for my design. I wanted to keep it pretty simple but not plain and be able to hold multiple spoon sizes while sitting on a nice parallel between my burners.
My first design had a bonus cutout at the base that was just for aesthetics. I ended up removing it for the final design in addition to lengthening the rest, widening the channel for the spoon handle and lengthening the overall cutout for the spoon.
Going form Vectorworks to MasterCAM and setting up toolpaths was a very straightforward process the first time. However when I ran the job on the CNC router I realized that my dimensions were making the biggest spoon rest I’ve ever seen.
With some direction from Leia I went back into Vectworks and I scaled it down. I ran a first pass in the air to make sure it was the right size without wasting material. I ran my first version of the design smoothly after this.
I ended up not liking it and doing a redesign. This process is when I went between CAD and CAM many times. Below are two videos: one of a toolpath I thought would be more efficient that actually didn’t work, and the other is the final toolpath I actually ran.
Tool Path Animations:
In this design I attempted to have the shallower pocket milled around the perimeter of the rounded pocket. However, the channels that border the widest part of the ellipse are too narrow for the assigned tool so the tool can’t fully mill out this area.
In this design the shallower pocket is just a rectangle so there is overlap for the milling of the two pockets (one of the operations will cut air) but everything gets milled out without issue.
Spoons
at
Rest
Next Steps:
While I took some pictures with spoons at rest this spoon rest is not ready for use. I ran the bottom edge on the router table with roundover bit and use a deburring tool and sandpaper to soften all the sharp edges, but I want to sand it with a few more grits. For it also to actually be useful in the kitchen it needs a moisture-resistant, food-safe finish in order to make it safe and durable. A couple of blogs have recommended Tried and True Original Wood Finish, but I’m still doing my research [1] [2].
Conclusions:
The non-linear workflow became really clear with this project. At one point I was literally rolling back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in a chair from the MasterCAM station to Vectorworks on my laptop, Vectorworks, MasterCAM, Vectorworks, MasterCAM.
One thing I felt in this process was that, rushing really wasn’t worth it. Doing a woodless run in the air took time but was beneficial. Going back to Vectorworks rather than trying to fiddle around in MasterCAM meant more back and forth but felt smoother in the end.
Questions: Can I scale down my file dimensions in MasterCAM? I tried transforming X but when I went to ran this new G-Code it was still huge.
Sources:
[1] https://turnawoodbowl.com/my-favorite-food-safe-wood-finish-waterproof-almost/
[2] https://www.triedandtruewoodfinish.com/products/original-wood-finish/
