STWJ: Flat Walnut Leads to New Multi-CNC Jig

Story Time with Jon is just me sharing some insight and events that happen to me while in the shop, a few days ago I did a pretty good upgrade for my CNC router, it was small but it ended-up solving a completely unrelated problem when it comes to filming fiber etching with my CNC laser.

Quite often, I try ideas in totally unrelated tangeants from the TeaLightBox.com business to the other featured here with the Drais BMT (bike multi-tool) found at MetalBounty.com and these experiences jive with one another to lead to new insights which makes it all the more fun.

So here I am flattening some amazing Black Walnut for a CNCROi.com customer who had this in their garage for a few years and then I begin to realize slowly that this isn’t the thickest live edge in the world and I’m starting to get pretty darn close to my hold down screws!

I truly appreciate being able to have all this wonderful equipment at my disposal when ever I want it, it’s just such a wonderful gift to be able to share with customers far and wide, my absolute passion for bringing ideas to reality at CNCROi.com.

You see, most of the live edge that I flatten with my ShopBot PRSAlpha starts-off quite a bit thicker than these pieces and so I never really had a problem of coming close to my screw heads when it comes to making a piece of live edge flat and parallel by flattening both sides.

Ironically, none of these issues are present using a full sheet CNC waterjet as generally the weight of the material and the waterjet shooting downwards produces enough force to keep things in place, not true with the CNC router.

The reason this poses a problem is because we have a very fast spinning carbide bit that could potentially hit a metal screw, it will totally cut the screw, I’ve done that many times, but a surfacing bit shoots material to the sides, not up or down like most CNC router bits I use.

So, carving into a screw using a surfacing bit creates instant bullets in the shop, something that isn’t good for me or the machine depending on what it hits and how.

As you can see from these photos, I started-off with a healthy thickness but by the end of it, I had about 1/16″ or 1 mm of vertical distance from my carbide surfacing bit and the top of the drywall screw.

CNCROi.com has worked with live edge big and small, from signage through HUGE HOUSE NUMBER SIGNS using solid Cherry!

The immediate solution to this potential safety hazard is to make the screw and related washer actually inlayed into the plywood, this would solve it right away but it also got me thinking about a better set-up regarding placement of the screw itself.

My CNC router has a fantastic vacuum table but it’s pretty useless when it comes to live edge boards as you need to begin with a material that’s relatively flat to begin with in order to have proper seal and suction to hold down things like plywood and sheet materials.

Wood really is a wonderful material to work with, as I get more into live edge production with more equipment and expertise coming along, it’s great to see how close from the original tree CNCROi.com can start off with for our customer’s custom woodworking needs.

With live edge, it’s only dead flat AFTER I’ve done half the job so I might as well just do the other side, if needed or wanted, without using the vacuum.

You can see in these pictures of my quarter inch or 6 mm thick solid 304 fiber etched stainless steel coaster that I didn’t have much room to play with using the current hold down jig which has served me well for more than 6 months and years beforehand using my smaller ShopBot Desktop.

The solution was simple, throw these old and worn jigs out and start fresh using 3/4″ 18 mm plywood scrap I’ve had in the shop for a while without a project to do with it.

I could have technically used my amazing bandsaw to produce these straight pieces of board but I find my table saw to be quicker and straighter with less hassle so it won out in the race to see which tool does what job at CNCROi.com.

After cutting the four pieces (I rarely need more than 4 for live edge flattening), it was a pretty straight forward project to make the adjustments needed to make these my new CNC router jigs for flattening but also other applications to hold materials.

Drilling a pilot hole before using fostner bits is important, it makes sure that the board doesn’t go flying across the shop from the forces that the fostner bit produces on a material when it initially bites into it.

The fostner bit is exactly the same size as the washers, it’s important to use washers where the head of the drywall screw won’t go through it, it helps tremendously creating a lot more downward force when drilling down into my CNC router table and also helps with stabilization from the forces introduced during the CNC routing process.

I’ve used plywood of various grades and thicknesses for a host of projects in the shop, one of the more recent ones was my TeaLightBox.com display which works great to this day.

The next logical step was to solve another problem I’ve been having with my videos and photos, people stealing them and calling them their own, by CNC laser engraving the plywood with my website address, this has not become exponentially more profitable for me as others are just advertising me!

So not only do I have a safer, more functional jig for my CNC router at this point, but also one that prevents image and video theft all in one shot!

After the CO2 laser engraving of the new CNC router jig, I had a project to fiber laser etch some of my Drais BMT tools so I decided to give them a try to see how they fared when it comes to camera and video focus which had been another issue I’ve always had in the CNCROi.com shop.

If you aren’t familiar with my invention, watch the above video to see just how many aspects of fixing a flat bike tire can be greatly simplified using the Drais BMT, you can get them at MetalBounty.com.

Wow, this was magic, the camera had no problem focusing on anything as the contrast of the wood was more powerful than the fiber light beam that generally plays havoc with my filming and camera equipment.

Always fun to fiber etch metal, these are 304 stainless steel, waterjet cut to spec and sold online at MetalBounty.com, another business I started about the same time as I initially got my full sheet CNC router.

Inventions and innovation can happen anytime, anywhere and every once in a while, they are actually good ones that solve many problems!

CNCROi.com got two jobs done at the same time, and solved a host of small to minor issues in the process, and it all started with flattening live edge Black Walnut boards!

Need something custom made? Contact CNCROi.com right now!