When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Were cruiser tablin' now!

Due to the short timeline on these cruiser tables, we had to head out and get the material ourselves. Our plastic supplier delivers Tuesday's and Thursday's, so we missed the deadline for delivery today. Also, the place we got the actual tables themselves don't deliver, period. It was HOT today, 40deg celcius to be exact, and the air-con in the van quite working. That sucked!
We did make it to the shop in the end, at around 3 pm, and got straight to work. Jody worked on marking, and pre-drilling the holes in the table tops
She's so little, that the drill looks huge!
We went with black pvc in the end. This will really make the shelves look good, especially with the silver cans. Our Techno cnc worked away, while I had the 'awesome' job of cutting all the aluminum tubing on the table saw.
By 9:30, all the tubing and shelves were cut! That was exactly where I wanted to be, so that was good.

I decided not to have the Techno cnc cut the pockets for the tubing and PETG covers, at this point. If the pockets aren't exactly the right depth, and exactly the same, it will spell disaster for the assembly. My sacrificial board on the router is getting a little worn now, and I'm sure it's not dead flat with all the cuts in it.
As both sides of the shelves get pockets in them, I decided to jig them one at a time. I'll run the file, then flip the part. This will make sure they're all the same.
The table tops are also getting a vinyl graphic cut in black, and we'll tackle that tomorrow.
I really kind of like this job now that I'm into it. Usually production style work bores me, but I kinda dig this!
8)
JO

2 comments:

  1. I'm impressed with this shops tools and equipment, especially the tool holding up that lady!

    ReplyDelete