Happy to report that my time at MakerPlace was successful. After running some router bit calibration patterns, really didn’t have too many problems cutting out the Test Cabinet.
Changes I would make if i have to rebuild this at some point include:
- 2 Dowel rods as the cross members suck.. they spin and rotate. If I’m going to be using a CNC machine anyway, could have easily cut out rectangular cross beams with “mortoise and tenon” joints.
- Software.. V-Carve seems like a pretty good tool to convert from a 2-D drawing to the CNC routers. It is installed on all the laptops at Makerplace, but otherwise it’s a $800 package. A pro and a con on what I did:
- Pro: I downloaded the free trial and did all my jobs in it. The free trial says it’s the full blown tool, it just can’t generate the output job.
- Con: I thought I could take the free trial project file and open it in the license version at Makerplace and I would be ready in no time. Not the case; the free trial was both a newer version than the ones in MakerPlace (so the file wouldn’t open) AND apparently, had the versions been right, I found out later that the trial files can only be opened on licensed versions installed on the same PC.. purposely preventing what I was trying to do I guess. So, I had to regenerate all the files there on the spot during my precious machine reservation
- When you are rushing to regenerate all the steps, a checklist to include:
- Material Thickness
- Cut Depth
- Generate Tabs – these are little pieces of wood left behind so the cut out pieces don’t fly off the table.. I forgot to do this, so some of my small pieces are very ugly as they got chewed up while trying to escape from the table
- Ramps
Some videos of the action:
Initial Assembly of one side:
Since that weekend, I’ve actually made further progress. I cut some holes (with a drill, like a pleb) for the flippers, gotten a table to setup the work in progress, and how to attach the 2 sides to the bridge so things don’t shift around.
Got the completed assembly for both sides
And now have flippers working on one side! Just need to replicate for the other side.. and then onto actually making stuff for the playfields and ‘bridge’ area!
Chronic Dabbler 