Tag: Shapeoko
Recurve bow (2) – Limb forms
Previous articles: part 1. After a lot of research, I finally decided on how to make the limbs for my recurve bow. I think I managed to find a good curve shape and length, so it is time to make the fo... Read More
2-sided milling in Rhino – THE EASY WAY
I’ll let the video speak for itself on this one. But in case you were wondering, the hole was not intentional, it was a zeroing mistake. Mach3 still holds a lot of secrets … The script ca... Read More
V-carve: Aztec Sun Stone
I always like to do a V-carve when I test the performance of my machine, because it needs all three axis to work in perfect unison in order to get a decent result. But I just tuned my motors to the ma... Read More
Bamboo soap dish
One of the first things I ever tried to mill was this ‘Grunblau soap dish’ design I found by accident on the interwebs. It turned out that the project had too steep of a learning curve for... Read More
2016 upgrade roundup
Here’s a summary of the whole process of upgrading my machine from a pretty much vanilla setup to the beast I have at my disposal today: 1. X-axis stiffening 2. Y-axis and more 3. Re-assembly ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (12) – wasteboard + closing up
Last but not least, I decided to put a new wasteboard in place. I had 2 pieces of 6 mm MDF cut to 750 x 750 mm panels. Then, cut a hole pattern in both of them that matches my threaded insert spacing.... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (11) – new Makita mounting brackets
Ever since I installed the linear rail Z-axis, my spindle hasn’t been mounted perfectly perpendicular to my bed. The old mounts were a tad flimsy and not 100% identical.  The widening of t... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (10) – Gecko G540 / Mach3
I actually almost forgot to write a little something about maybe one of the more substantial yet invisible upgrades: I ditched the whole Arduino/Gshield setup and bought a real CNC controller: theÂ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (9) – Drag chain bracket
Next project on the block: making a new drag chain bracket. I actually made one ages ago mostly with hand tools, and it worked to a degree, but there definitely was some room for improvement. So here... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (8) – Aluminium Z-plate
A new day, a new project. Today: cutting a plate for the final version of my Z-stage out of 4mm aluminium. Why have a plate and belt drive at all instead of direct drive? Well I mentioned this before:... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (7) – New belts, pulleys and idlers
Ok, so now that I have the much more powerful 276 oz-in NEMA 23 motors driving my machine, I went on and replaced all the pulleys and idlers in order to have them accept 9mm GT3 belting. I do this... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (6) – New motors
Phew. It’s been a while! As I mentioned earlier, I did some traveling and I also needed to do some projects around the house during summer, so there was hardly any time left to put into hobby... Read More
Leaving on a holiday…
But I couldn’t resist showing the upgrades I have in store when I come back. 🙂... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (5) – Z-axis
Originally, I was going to start using my Shapeoko again for other projects after having completed the last batch of upgrades. But for some reason I got it in my head to order some more parts and kee... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (4) – First cut
Well it is finally time to test out my upgraded Shapeoko. I finished it by adding an LED strip underneath the X-rail and put the enclosure back over it. So here it is in all it’s glory: I must ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (3) – Re-assembly and troubleshooting
Final day of my Shapeoko rebuild. Once again, I did a lot of small modifications and corrections. First of all, I took out the locked up bearing I noticed the other day, and pried off the shielding. ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (2) – Y-axis and more
Today I proceeded with the Shapeoko upgrade. Nothing massive, but a lot of small things that took some time anyhow. I checked, and where necessary, fastened all screws/bolts. I flattened all of the ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (1) – X-axis stiffening
I’d been putting it off for a long time, but now it’s finally time to do some upgrades and work out some kinks i’ve had trouble with over the last few weeks. The most drastic one is... Read More
Rhinocam post-processor
Here’s a quickie for people who use Rhinocam. Mecsoft has recently released an X-carve post processor. While this is great, there were 2 features that were missing imo, so I changed their post ... Read More
Gearing up
In order to automate my 360° photobooth, I concocted a gear train with a 36:1 reduction ratio. I had to google gearing 101 because I was totally ignorant on the matter, but I had a working princip... Read More
Laser cutter air assist upgrade – part 5
Update: I have taken my K40 apart and converted it to a whole new & improved machine: the LAYZOR! Read all about this project here. Want to do the same thing to yours? Check the LAYZOR website. On... Read More
House warming gift
I carved this bamboo tray to give to a friend for his housewarming party. The text says ‘There’s no place like home’ in dutch, and is also a wordplay on his name and a popular local ... Read More
Inlay – fourth try
When I V-carved the zebra a while ago, I always intended it to be an inlay test. Now that I am confident enough, I finally took the plunge. However, looking at the intricate detail and very tiny p... Read More