Just starting to play with the machine a bit, I’m focused on v-carve inlays at the moment. My first attempt wasn’t too bad but did suffer from a couple of spots of chip out that filled with glue and… so, didn’t look too bad from a “proper viewing distance”.
Doing “easy” laser inlays, of course, they never suffered from chip out as there was no physical contact between the material and the tool and the waste material burned/vaporized and was exhausted out as soot and smoke. Not so, here… the need for dust collection rears its ugly head…
I had wondered some time early on in MPR&P development, that if I ever needed dust collection, could I somehow use the Z-conduits since they’re already running right down to where the bit is? Maybe something similar to how I did dust collection on an early BuildYourCNC-inspired machine… before I ever knew enough to stuggle with design of a dust collection system? Well, that’s the inspiration behind this first SWAG dust collection system…
A couple of printed nozzles that lightly friction-fit into the bottom of the conduit, next to the bit, and can be swung out of the way (or removed) when changing bits…
And a printed manifold of some sort tightly fitted at the top of the conduits…
and that also receives the vacuum hose end that just drapes down and over the whole machine.
I need to get back on the inlays now and see how this works. It’s finally dawned on me the importance of surfacing the stock before cutting any inlays and have been playing with Jamie’s surfacing pattern generator to surface my small bandsawn planks.
I’ve never really worried about a perfectly uniform thickness of my bandsawn planks for my laser-cut, finger-jointed, boxes before as they were always “close enough” for what I was doing and also lent a handcrafted look to the finished product… but not so with v-carved inlays. The v-carve depth geometries involved are very tiny and uniform material thickness is crucial in order to achieve a proper inlay fit.
Later.
