Cartoon racecar build continues

I started machining the body parts for the racecar when I got into the shop today. The deadline is pretty good for this, so I haven't had to kill myself on the build. I also have a lot of computer work to get done at the same time, so I toolpathed the parts with a pretty small stepover. I don't need the small Techno router for anything else at the moment, so I figured it could mill away while I got my computer work done!

 I've been doing the cnc thing for a while now, most times it goes really well. However, I made the basic of basic mistakes on this! I assumed my HDU was 2" thick when I was toolpathing the model in Aspire. It actually calipered out at 1.960", which means the slices are going to need a bit of manual massaging after they're glued up. I HATE having to "tweak" something the router has worked on, especially if I had payed attention in the beginning. Stoooopid Jamie!

I also started machining the sidewalls of the front tires when the body parts were finished. I cut these from 1/2" black pvc. The tires will actually be layered flats of pvc, this will let me rabbet the edge of the layers to achieve a basic "tread"

I didn't put anything together today, but will do that in the morning. The computer stuff is the priority for the rest of this evening!
8)
JO

F1 and other stuff

I exploded the parts off the racecar in Hexagon. The reason for doing this is so I can bring them into Aspire separately for machining. Aspire fills in any undercuts on imported geometry, and this allows me to machine the tricky parts as separate units. Even though I modeled both sides of the car, I only actually need one side.

Once the body was centered in the material on all 3 axis, I just mirrored it for the other side. Sometimes in Hex, things can get tweaked on only one side of the model by mistake (operator error for sure!) Mirroring the model in Aspire keeps both sides of the car exactly the same.

Then it was just a matter of using Aspires' slicing feature to cut the model into the 2" thick slabs we'll be cutting it from.

With all the parts ready to go, I nested them in Aspire to get the best material yield I could.

I'll start cutting these tomorrow when I get to the shop.
On another note....
When we were in New York at Techno, we cut the demonstration piece to go over different toolpath options.

A fun little piece with the "Awesomeness" meter maxed out!

We painted it almost entirely with the Rustoleum Metallic Accents paint. I love this stuff! The opacity is really good for a waterbased metallic, and the dry-time/ inter-mixability is so flexible!

Well box this guy up and send it down to Dee and Roy at Techno for them to have, a thank-you of sorts, for having us down!

8)
JO

Techno CNC!

We returned un-scathed from our trip down to Techno CNC routers in New York! For those who were unable to make it, maybe next time!

The drive down was great! Jody and I love road trips, and this one was no exception.
To be surrounded by Techno routers is pretty exciting for me. Imagine...........any router you might decide to use is available and waiting.

It was a pleasure to meet everyone who came out, and to get a chance to discuss cnc, marketing, and creativity!

Roy Valentine was present during the whole event, and was able to answer any technical questions, and Dee Loebl deserves an award for organizing it and having it fly without a hitch. We also got a chance to hang with Ken McBride, Techno's Application Engineer. This guy is one super cool cat! I'm betting he might regret giving me his direct extension number:) Techno has some of the greatest people working for them!

As this was a short-run event, about 4 hours, we crammed a few thing in. Ken covered basic nesting, pocketing and Techno's new ADA compliant braille insertion tool. I also went over our process for cleaning up dimensional text. This has become a staple of mine, as I regard it the most important part of sign routering. Especially on complicated, texture laden signs.

Unlike most other times teaching this process, we were able to run the files right after the computer part, enabling everyone to see exactly why we were doing it this way!

 This was such a great time for me! We are planning to put together a 3 day version, hosted at Techno again, in which we will cover everything, and everyone attending will be able to leave with a painted sample for their showroom wall!
It promises to be action packed for sure. As soon as we come up with some times and dates, I'll post here.

I want to say thanks again to Roy, Dee and Ken at Techno for an amazing day. I love going to your place!

We are building quite a few things for this new show we're working on, but sadly with the 3 year NDA, I can't post anything :(
But were going to show the demo sign we did at Techno, and the painting steps involved to bring it to life. Then we'll ship it down to them so they can hang it up!
8)
JO

"Small investment, Big return!"

Tonight's post is a short but awesome one!

Techno cnc routers is having a 2012 Holiday Video Contest. YAAAY!

This is the first one of this kind they're doing. Hopefully it wont be the last.

Heres the quote from their website:

Show us your Techno CNC Router in action!  

We want to see what our customers are doing with their routers.

Enter the "Small Investment Big Return" Video Contest by submitting

a short video and you have the chance to win a big return of

$1500.00 in your pocket for the holiday season.

 

 

The winners will receive bragging rights and a privileged placement on their Home Page for one month. First place winner will receive $1500.00, second place winner will  receive $500.00, and third place winner will receive $250.00.

 

This is pretty huge of them to put a contest like this on. I'm pretty pumped to see what other people are making on their Techno. I haven't found any other cnc company promoting their customers in this capacity.

This kind of stuff makes me very proud to promote a company that not only makes great products, but continues to be interested long after the sale!

 

Great work Techno!

8)

JO

  

 

A new addition to the Family!

There has been no awesomeness at Oxenham design since the desk finished! We've been cutting the paint stencils for the township on our Techno cnc. We are able to cut ten of these .080" at a time. The current bike lane stencils actually consist of 3 pcs each. Thats a lot of cardboard! We just got another order for 200 chevron stencils for the highways as well.

However, today the lack of awesomeness changed! Woo-hoo!

At around noon, a giant crate showed up to the loading door. I knew it was coming, but it was still pretty awesome! This crate was pretty huge, at around 4' cubed, it was a monster.

I bet you want to know what's inside.........................................

Are you still wondering??????? After our trip to New York to visit Techno cnc, 2101 Jericho Turnpike is my new favorite geographical location.

So back to the magical OSB box at the shop.....

It's our new addition to the family, a Techno cnc LC 3024 tabletop machine! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
The packing was amazing, I don't think anything shifted, even a millimeter.

This is going to be amazing for us. It will be so awesome to be able to run 2 machines now with the accuracy that we need, at the speeds we need. Our plan is to be able to physically show people, when we teach our techniques at various seminars, how user friendly, accurate and rigid these Techno machines really are. After looking the machine over for any damage that can occur when shipping something of this size and weight, it becomes even more apparent how well these machines are constructed. Not only are the materials top notch, the overall fit and finish leaves the competition in the dust! This thing is tank.
We had a delivery to make this afternoon, so I wasn't able to get it set up at all. But while we were out on the delivery, I picked up a heavy duty steel table with locking castors, so I will be able to move it around depending on the jobs were running.
I'm in cnc router heaven for a second time this year.
I want to thank everyone who helped handle all the shipping, freight and duties to bring this into the country.
From George, Roy and Sharon Etwaroo at Techno cnc
Bobbi Morison and Crista Nielson at Hitek Logistic Inc.
and Liz Barnes at BTX Logistics
You guys made all of this SOOOO smooth and easy, You guys rock
THANK YOU!
8)
JO

Z-axis surgery!

I had great hopes this morning about starting the HDU test plug for the r/c cars. I got everything all ready to cut, but the z-axis on my Techno wasn't able to machine the mold the way I had planned for it to. There was no malfunction or anything, just the limits of cutter/ travel/ etc. I am running an RG series Techno, and it's far from a new machine, that's for sure! It runs the same speeds as the new ones, and runs the same software interface, but it's the old design for the Z-axis. On our RG machine, the whole Z -axis extrusion moves up and down with the spindle fixed to it. I can slide the spindle to different spots vertically, then lock it down, (which is what I have been doing sometimes) but for the truck mold, I don't want to have to re-position anything, which could lead to small offsets on the finished mold.

So I though "I bet I can flip that around!" That proved to be more work than I thought. The new Techno's have just the spindle mounted to a plate that rides up and down.

Long story short, it took all day. I ended up needing a 10" X8 5/8" plate of 5/16" aluminum to get the whole thing working properly. A plate I didn't have at 5:30 this evening, and nowhere to buy one :(
BUT.....the neighbor a few units down is a welder, so I thought "maybe, just maybe" he'd have one. He sure did, that and tons more. Good job he was working late!

I was back in action! I got the new plate drilled and tapped for the fasteners, and got the whole thing back together again. However, now it was to high from the table at the lowest point of travel. This is easy to solve with a Techno, as most of the extrusions used have C-channels that let everything be fully adjustable. I did have to take it all apart again to adjust it, but at least I didn't have to drill and tap new holes! By 8pm it was all back together.........again. I fired it up and...........the Z-axis movement was now reversed due to the part being on in reverse and the plate moving instead of the whole extrusion. I was a bit panicked that I was now going to face the possibility of re-wiring. Luckily the software interface that makes the Techno so powerful, lets you reverse all the axis by entering either a "+" or a "-" in the scaling section. So once I found the place to do this, I was back in business. Leave it to me to tear apart the most used machine in the shop, in the middle of using it!

Tomorrow I will get the mold plug machined, you know, unless I decide to take something else apart
8)
JO

The Kingdom of Techno cnc Routers!

 Last weekend Jody and I had a visit from Sandy Baird from Windwalker sign studio. Sandy was a fellow we met in Indiana at the sign camp we taught at. I can't believe I have to go to Indiana to make friends in Ontario! His work is first rate. Sandy came to the house and stayed, and it was brilliant! We all gelled really well. We talked about signs, business, future plans, etc. I wish he lived closer so we could hang out a bit more. After he headed home, we finished up some loose ends, and headed down to New York. The trip was awesome. The purpose was to visit the Techno cnc facilities where our cnc was made. It was great to meet everyone I had only previously spoken to on the phone. Mike in the tech support dept. Roy Valentine, sales manager extraordinaire, and George Klien, the president of Techno cnc. Of course in my mind, George is the king, ruler over the amazing "Kingdom of Techno" :)

 I had stalked Techno cnc routers on Google Maps for some time now, so when the building first appeared in the distance, I was pretty excited! The facilities were quite impressive to say the least.

 The first stop in the tour was the showroom. This was great. It's probably the first time I've seen a Techno without a layer of MDF and HDU dust all over it!

 Their new line of HD and HDS series routers was equally impressive, These are some pretty robust machines. And the feature list is quite extensive as well. The HDS series features pretty powerful AC servo motors and drives

Their cnc lathes are pretty awesome as well. I wanted one of EVERYTHING I saw there!

I was secretly admiring their "Patriot" line of machines. These ones come in their own protective enclosure, making them perfect for small shops and schools. I kinda wish our 5X12 machine had it's own enclosure for dust control.

 These are the newest candidates,  getting ready to be packaged up with all their accessories.

I'm sorry, but what could be cooler to a cnc nut like me than shelves full of gantry's and servo motors? Nothin, that's what's cooler, Nothin!

Here's all the machines getting ready to leave the nest, like a nursery of awesomeness, they will be delivered to many, many, happy customers. I was saddened that my Chevy Cruze rental car wouldn't hold one of these, otherwise I might have employed the old "You distract them Jody, and I'll put the big one in the trunk" routine!

 It was an amazing day for me, to say the least. George Klein, President (back left) and Roy Valentine, sales manager(back right) were amazing hosts, who made Jody and I feel VERY welcome. Our visit lasted all day, but I wished it was longer.
However, New York City rushour was something I could've easily lived without, but the buzz of our visit even made that easy to handle.

I want to thank everyone at Techno cnc for letting us come by and visit. The people, and the machinery, make us proud to use their routers
8)
JO

#Technocnc keeps us very busy!

I am going to harp this blog on the benefits of owning a cnc router. This is a purchase that anybody who is involved in fabrication should be considering. I truly love my Techno cnc. I have said before that I have owned other machines, but Techno cnc is the one I stand by. There is no on-going compensation, or a bonus, or anything. My preference is Techno cnc, through and through. In order for someone to continually talk about, and continually promote a product, it has to be a reliable piece of gear, with exceptional customer service to back it up. Most cnc router purchases will be paid off completely by the 6-8 month mark, due to the diversity that they enable. We are always getting jobs that aren't related to movies and television at all. This is a direct result of good marketing, and the equipment to back it up. With a return like the one I just quoted, a fabrication company will actually LOSE money in the long run by NOT having one. When I started, I was on a very limited budget for a machine purchase, so I had to get a 'less than ideal' used machine. Still, I learned haw to use it quite well. That machine was paid off on the first job we got it for. Pretty nice if you ask me. This opened up the way for a second machine purchase. This one was considerably more money, but paid off in 3 months. By that point, I was ready for a 'real' machine. A Techno cnc router. Every time I fire up our Techno, I am assured it's going to do the job, and do it flawlessly, in record time. One of the last jobs we ran on it was trimming vac-formed shells for a Laser Quest game manufacturer. We originally machined the vac form mold for these vest plates, so getting us to trim the parts out of the vac-form sheet made sense. This kind of job is a far cry from 'props and sets', but shows how a Techno cnc can, and will, open the door to new business, regardless of the type of fabrication business your in. We have done custom wood mouldings for mansions, in-layed wood doors, styrofoam packaging prototypes, the list goes on and on. And we aren't in ANY of those businesses.

Every time we do a run of these vests, there are between 50 and 100 pieces. Once the file is written, it just gets used over and over again. Another job I couldn't do without our router!

JO

Techno cnc and diversification

One of the few things I will never regret is buying our Techno cnc. I have said before that I have owned other routers, but none of these routers were capable of delivering what we needed all the time. I used to have to turn down some work as I wasn't comfortable with the old routers ability to hold their positional accuracy. One job in particular was 3D machining a vac-form mold from 3" thick cast acrylic. This sheet was in the neighborhood $7000. With that kind of a material cost, I couldn't stomach the thought of some lost steps! That job would have been pretty good money, but at the time, the cost to replace a messed up sheet would have had some serious side effects!
Now that we have definitely moved 'up' to our Techno cnc, I no longer have that concern. It's quite a feeling to not worry about the machine not being capable. The other blessing of owning cnc is the ability to expand on you current business. Don't get me wrong, I love making props and miniatures for film and television, as well as all the other ad campaigns we get to work on. However, this industry can be very up and down. I know a few producers that only find work twice a year. But by expanding our capabilities, largely with our Techno cnc at the helm, we have diversified quite a bit since the beginning. We now carve all the dimensional sign work for 4 sign shops who focus more on vinyl and printing, and we also now have started cutting paint stencils for the city. Like handicap parking and arrows, etc. This becomes an added revenue stream for a company that would struggle on the entertainment industry alone. One of the first thing I really like seeing at the start of the day is the happy face on our Techno cnc smiling, ready to work it's butt off whenever I say the word!

When it all just works (warning-nerdy content!)

To move slightly off course for a moment, I wanted to post a little bit about the things that work right. We all have been through it, we buy a computer upgrade part that when we get it home, it needs something else. Remember when printers were making the switch between parallel port to usb? Or you wanted to move to Win 7 and your pc (which seemed fine with XP) couldn't handle it. As I am also a closet computer nerd, these things would pop up from time to time, and drive me batty. I remember my old cnc routers. When I got my first one, it was running win 95! As I was running win XP, I really wanted to upgrade the router.  I could do an upgrade, but it was gonna cost me $5000.00 for new electronics and I would be stuck with the old mechanics of the machine. Fast-forward to now. I purchased my Techno cnc 2 years ago, used. I would guess the machine to be between made between 1999-2005.  I recently picked up the ART hand held pendant   from Techno. This is a fantastic piece of technology. It basically provides complete control of all machine functions via a small touchscreen monitor.It also allows me to move around the machine and do all my set-ups where they need to be done, instead of commuting back and forth from the PC to the machine. So this is where I am going with this. I was able to download the drivers from the Techno cnc website, plug in the ART pendant and it all just works. Period. No expensive upgrades, new components or computer changeover. It just works. A  new piece of technology-working in tandem with my older machine. I think the developers over at Techno need a round of applause, or at least from me, because this is the way it always should be. 

JO

Techno cnc routers

I thought that for this post, I would take a few moments to discuss the single most important tool in our shop, as our next few jobs are still at the early computer stage. When I started using cnc routers, I had no idea the creative potential I could unleash. I had very little computer experience, and I thought vectors and .STL must have been some kind of government agency!

At that time, Aspire software wasn't available. I had bought a used camtech router which was cable and chain driven(that's right, you heard me) and the pc (win98) came with a copy of Artcam 5. The machine software was running in a DOS shell and was VERY limited by today's standards. None the less, I was very happy at the time. I think I paid $2500 for it. The cost was the only reason I was able to move to automation at the time. I had no tech support, as the machine was out of date, and the cost to upgrade the mechanics was WAY out of reach. I learned quite a lot about this new world on that machine, but as time moved on, It became apparent I needed faster cut times. That machine had some seriously under-powered stepper motors on it. Not that steppers are bad by any stretch, I have heard of steppers that can shear a 3/8" cutter off without stopping. But UNDER powered steppers gave me a world of grief. I then actually found another used camtech machine, fairly well priced, that I purchased as well. Being that I already knew how to use our first machine, having a second one that ran the same control software meant no steep learning curve....again! I ran both those machines for about 2 years. One was 4X8 and the other was 5X10. Needless to say, that's a huge amount of real estate to lose. As more and more work started to arrive, I found that 2 under powered machines were not going to cut it. Secretly, I wouldn't take some jobs on, as I couldn't count on their accuracy. If you compound under powered machinery with an open loop stepper configuration, the combination can be disastrous. I sometimes would let those machines run when I went for lunch, and would come back to a pile of lost steps, parts cut through other parts, etc. Time was another factor. It took our one machine 10 hours to 3d machine a sci-fi machine gun out of MDF.
And that was just one side. Still though, it was faster than doing it by hand. Those machines did carve a lot of great stuff though:) As time went on, I knew if I wanted to stay in the cnc business, I HAD to upgrade. I spent hours online looking at new machinery, I would attend woodworking and sign shows, learning all about what was out there. I finally decided to go with a Techno cnc router. I chose them for a multitude of reasons. Largely for the closed loop servo motors. In a closed loop system, the servo motors are always talking to the computer, letting it know where they are at all times, and correcting any errors on the fly. The other is the LIFETIME support. I bought my machine used from a fabrication company. Even though it was a used product, I have received software and firmware upgrades for free, as well as unparalleled tech support. I used to read on some forums (after I bought my machine) that Techno's tech support was terrible, I have from day one never found this. In fact I have Mike from Techno (i think that "from Techno" might even be his last name) in my cell phone speed dial, just in case I need help. Our Techno has run miles of cuts, quite literally. I do a small amount of maintenance, like lubrication and cleaning, and that's it. Compared to our last 2 machines, the maintenance is minimal at best. I will, at a later time, answer some questions and myths regarding cnc routers. But for now I need to finish drawing up our up-coming projects.



Oh yeah, That same sci-fi gun, cut on our Techno took 45 min. a side to machine. Which means that our Techno can outrun the old stepper machine by making 13 full guns to 1. With that ratio, you can see what makes sense!

JO