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  #361  
Old Wed 09 June 2010, 13:23
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Thanks, hate to stain something like this but it needs to fit in with the decor (mind you it also helps even out the colour variation in the Maranti - next bach will be well scrutinised before accepting delivery, this lot all looked evenly dark but once machined some of it was very light)

Did two now with a follow up order for two more - overall I think they need to replace more than 12...
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  #362  
Old Wed 09 June 2010, 14:35
PEU
Just call me: Pablo
 
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan_c View Post
Thanks, hate to stain something like this but it needs to fit in with the decor (mind you it also helps even out the colour variation in the Maranti - next bach will be well scrutinised before accepting delivery, this lot all looked evenly dark but once machined some of it was very light
Some woods have that behaviour and its normal, our most popular hardwood, Quebracho, is normally reddish and it goes brown after long light exposures due to its high content of tannins, BUT, when you machine it its almost the same color as pine, leave it in a sunny spot for a day and it recovers its normal color.

Take a look af these flashlight skins I did years ago, all of them are quebracho:

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  #363  
Old Wed 09 June 2010, 15:52
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Hi Pablo, the wood I am using is Meranti - comes in two flavours dark and heavy or light in colour and weight. There is physically quite a diference between the two, the light Meranti has quite an open grain and will not darken much over time. The rough sawn boards just need to be checked carefully as the timber merchants will try and offload the light one on you if you are not careful.
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  #364  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 00:11
hennie
Just call me: Hennie #23
 
Roodepoort JHB
South Africa
Nice Alan,I would also stain meranti dark.Hope you get more of those to make.
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  #365  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 09:33
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Deep 3D help required

Received an enquiry to machine these (baths and basins) but not sure where to start

bathtub_madera3_lgXX.jpg Beautiful-Exotic-Wooden-Bathtub-for-Bathroom-Furniture-469x317xx.jpg madera-2_48xx.jpg

First challenge would be how to draw them...???

I would obviously have to machine them in layers - but need some advise in that field. The client will supply laminated rings as blanks.

Shaun, this is the kind of thing you are used to doing, any suggestions?
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  #366  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 10:25
hennie
Just call me: Hennie #23
 
Roodepoort JHB
South Africa
Alan, I played with that but just on boats.You would probably design it in 3d cad and then import it to cut 3d.Layer them in 50 mm thick pieces.I would not go for a longer cutter as it shudders like my wifes finger when I am in trouble.My worthless R 200 note idea.
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  #367  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 10:35
Travish
Just call me: Travis #75
 
Wa
United States of America
1st draw in 2d half the profile, then revovle the geometry to create a solid then slice into layers. Glue the rings together, Then sand.
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  #368  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 12:59
ifffff
Just call me: Ivo #38 & #130
 
Parnu
Estonia
Alan would you share technology how those baths are made. I mean here what kind of wood to use, what kind of glue to put sticks together and finishing? What prevents for distention and for cracking when wood gets wet and then dries again?

Last edited by ifffff; Thu 10 June 2010 at 13:02..
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  #369  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 13:23
Sergio-k
Just call me: Sergio #61
 
Athens
Greece
Alan
These baths are simply wonderful !!

I hope you'll be able to make them.
Have a google research about "working with big things" in Artcam videos,
i think i saw something useful for your project there.

By the way these baths are sold around 15000-20000 euros here in Greece.
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  #370  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 14:24
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Using Rhino I can draw a bath type shape - relatively easy - getting the exact shape I want may take a little bit more work.

bath pic.jpg

What I need help on is the slicing of the model, I have access to Enroute3 and ArtCam Pro V7. Enroute can do extraction of slices but its not easy or intuitive and its not producing the output I want, I can't seem to find that kind of function in ArtCam. Or is this something I should be doing in Rhino?

If anybody has experience with this kind of thing please advise which programs and processes are best or if you can point me to a tutorial or "how to" somewhere.
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  #371  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 14:31
PEU
Just call me: Pablo
 
Buenos Aires
Argentina
These appear to be made of small pieces of solid wood. I would start by thinking the building method, then modelling it in 3D and then to mechmate it IMHO best option would be to make layers and every piece of the layer puzzle jointed

Last week I saw this bath at a local expo:




These are made of plywood, the company sells the ceramic part, wooden part was made by architects.
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  #372  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 14:34
Sergio-k
Just call me: Sergio #61
 
Athens
Greece
Alan
I too myself use Artcam. So as i was searching around for tutorials i came
up here : http://www.artcam.com/videos/signmak...ng-videos.html

If you click on the "working with large models video" you will see a brief tutorial of how to slice big models (way bigger than your machine).

You may also find some useful info in Artcam forums.
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  #373  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 14:54
PEU
Just call me: Pablo
 
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Found the OEM of that bathtub: http://www.stolis.at/en/product-over...-bathtubs.html
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  #374  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 14:54
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Thanks Sergio, but using V7, doesnt have that function.

Pablo, I agree it will be made with lots of small pieces glued together and in layers, its just generarting the actual cut file that is causing some grief.
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  #375  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 15:07
PEU
Just call me: Pablo
 
Buenos Aires
Argentina
not only that Alan, think that one side of any layer of the tub you need to mill a convex side and on the opposite side the same piece a concave side, unless one or both sides edges are sanded till they are ready after cut them straight.
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  #376  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 15:13
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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I would probably machine each ring on the inside first (concave) flip the ring over and machine the outside (convex) using some system of referencing - maybe dowels in each flat surface, that will also help when assembling the rings onto each other.
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  #377  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 15:25
Sergio-k
Just call me: Sergio #61
 
Athens
Greece
Alan i found this on Artcam forum which might be useful.

This guy has created a fine Jesus statue by slicing the model BUT not in Artcam.

He stated this :
"....About statue making, the most important thing is to prepare fine slices for troublefree CNC cutting. The ideal way how to do that is to use 3D studio once again. I prefer to edit polygonal mesh to make main and basic edges of the model, then divide into slices and in this form export into Artcam. Then make toolpath, generate G-Code and cut. It is also necessary to make some finish corrections by hand, you will never get 100% one from machine."

Here is the link of the topic :http://forum.artcam.com/viewtopic.ph...=4948&start=30
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  #378  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 15:34
wintersgillg
Just call me: Graham
 
Glasgow
United Kingdom
Slicing

Alan

found this: http://forum.artcam.com/viewtopic.php?p=29050

'In past versions of ArtCAM there was a simple relief slicer which was an external tool copied form the install CD. It opened an old looking window which allowed you to load a relief and it saved out a bunch of rlf files, slicing the part.

The Relief Slicer was re-written in V2008. It's now a tool found on the Assistant page in the Relief Tools section. The new tool, slices the relief in Z, placing each slice on its own relief layer. This way it is much quicker, you just turn a layer on, calculate a toolpath, and then repeat for the next relief layer'

HTH

Graham
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  #379  
Old Thu 10 June 2010, 23:15
Lex
Just call me: Johan #56
 
Empangeni KwaZuluNatal
South Africa
Hallo Alan,
If you can export your model to Autocad, using a .sat extention the model can be sliced.
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  #380  
Old Fri 11 June 2010, 01:20
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Hi Lex, not very experienced with AutoCAD (use mainly DesignCad V17) please explain the process. Rhino can export .slc files would that also work?
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  #381  
Old Fri 11 June 2010, 01:43
Lex
Just call me: Johan #56
 
Empangeni KwaZuluNatal
South Africa
Nothing complicated. The 3d solid (dumb solid) drawn up in Autocad is the one that can be sliced. It is just a matter of importing from other programs. The one that I mentioned is also called a ACIS file and it useally end with .sat. A .step file from inventor can also be imported into Autocad. The.slc file doesn't seems to be on the list in Autocad.
Can't you draw it into Autocad. The curves on the bath looks straught forward. No compound curves. If it is possiable to send me some dimensions, I will give it a try.
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  #382  
Old Sat 12 June 2010, 01:14
Jan de Ruyter
Just call me: Jan
 
Pretoria
South Africa
"Meranti" is a collective name for hardwoods grown in Malaysia and Indonesia. It consists of different species of the same genus, same as we have "pine" or "blue gum", hence the difference in structure, colour and mass. It even finishes differently, so one has to select pieces carefully, specially if you want to glue them together, as their expansion rates are different, which may cause failure of the joint.

I recon the baths are glued with polyurethane glue, which is waterproof and infused with epoxy resin first under vacuum and then pressure. Similar process to making epoxy granite.
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  #383  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 06:01
Alan_c
Just call me: Alan (#11)
 
Cape Town (Western Cape)
South Africa
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Angry Cables Stolen - Pissed Off

Monday morning we came into work to find that some little b@$&%* had broken in over the weekend and decided to hack off all the shielded cables between the control box and the gantry. I am pissed beyond belief (that why I am only posting now - if I had done so yesterday I would have been booted from the forum for bad language ) We dont understand how they were able to do this as the area is alarmed with a passive pointing directly at the control panel??? There is an epidemic in this country with cable theft and the authorities seem powerless to do anything about it. These guys even go so far as the bring the rail and Telekom system to a standstill when they hack out signal and control cables. (a few of them have even been fried trying the same stunt with 11Kva lines) The worst thing is they will probably only get about R20.00 at the most for the little bit of copper in the lapp cable, and this for something that will cost me about R2000.00 to replace.

panel connectors.jpg gantry end.jpg

Will have to replace all the long cables between the control box and gantry as well as the multi pole plugs. The only fortunate thing is they did not decide to cut the cables at the motors.

On a more positive note I have managed to get all the reduction drives assembled and working and the machine adjusted to make accurate cuts. Of course any further testing is on hold until the cables are replaced.

Y car reduction boxes.jpg
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  #384  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 06:32
Robert M
Just call me: Robert
 
Lac-Brome, Qc
Canada
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Needless to say this is VERY regretful event that has happen to you, feel very sympathetic and sorry for the enormous trouble it will cause you….
You as anyone else really don’t need this, but…. Shit happens and truly & deeply whishing you prompt recovery of this anger, it’s only pissing you of and depriving you of some great moments
Sending you all my positive thought & hopping you’ll recover ASAP of this idiot incident.
Amicalement, Robert
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  #385  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 07:37
domino11
Just call me: Heath
 
Cornwall, Ontario
Canada
Sorry to hear that Alan. Speedy recovery. Does insurance cover this at all for you?
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  #386  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 09:48
Kobus_Joubert
Just call me: Kobus #6
 
Riversdale Western Cape
South Africa
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I would go to the local scrap metal dealer and punch him in the you know where. These guys SAY they are just making a living, but they buy from these thieves. I have seen them arriving with manhole covers to sell....and these guys take it in. A while ago they stole the manhole cover. Later some small children fell in and was drowned.

Sterkte Alan.
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  #387  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 10:26
hennie
Just call me: Hennie #23
 
Roodepoort JHB
South Africa
Ek voel vir jou ou maat dit is nou wat jy`n kak spull noem.
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  #388  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 10:35
Gerald D
Just call me: Gerald (retired)
 
Cape Town
South Africa
I can only shake my head and pray that it doesn't happen again
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  #389  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 15:36
sailfl
Just call me: Nils #12
 
Winter Park, FL
United States of America
Alan,

Sorry to hear you got hit and they destroyed your hard work.

Copper stealing is a big thing here in the states. There have been reports of wire being taken from street lamps while they are operating.

Another area is that they take the air conditioner unit while it is operating. Lots of copper in AC units.

Also they remove the wiring from vacant houses.

With the price of copper so high and the economy so bad, copper is easy to find and hard to identify as to where it came from.
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  #390  
Old Tue 24 August 2010, 15:46
danilom
Just call me: Danilo #64
 
Novi Sad
Serbia
Copper Bandits!

I tought that they only steal wires for copper in my country.

They are so shallow and you can see it from the fact that they steal only copper because there is an immediate buyer for it and care not for the rest of parts.

I wish you lots of jobs and money to restore the loss!
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