has anyone made a tubing jig for the shapeoko pro cnc router? im having difficulty finding any FRC specific resources for this machine. im sure concepts and such are relatively the same between all machines but im looking to find an easy way to set up tubes for the router that arent permanent so we could still use it to cut out sheets of material.
thanks!
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A CNC router will unlikely have any FRC-specific resources available, although searching here might prove useful.
A fixture to hold anything, such as 1x2 tubing, can be made so it attaches to the router’s table with clamps. For tubing specifically, I looked for a photo of what we use but did not find one, so I will try to describe it:
Imagine a piece of plywood about 8" wide and 40" deep - our CNC goes to 40" . Now imaging making that thicker by stacking a few pieces of plywood on top, with glue, to make a ‘thick’ board. Using the CNC, cut a 2" wide slot into the entire board, about 3/4" deep (less than 1") into which your tubing fits tightly. That will hold the tubing while you cut it.
Holding the tubing in place using clamps on the bottom inside surface, or a ‘strap’ over the top, is good. You almost certainly will have to waste a little bit of each end of the tube so it can be clamped.
We also use the CNC to cut a slot across the end of the tube so we don’t have to cut it to length, the CNC does that for us, perfectly. We only cut the wide surfaces through, the narrow surfaces we finish with a hack saw.
My advice is to use rigid pink foam insulation to cut as you get used to the machine. It is cheap and easy on bits. Once you know what you are doing, move to aluminum. Be sure the bit is cooled and the chips are never cut twice, or you’ll break bits.
Good luck!
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I wonder if @mrnoble can chime in with any input here? 1339 received a Shapeoko Pro this build season and put it to some good use by the looks of things. Not sure what method they used for doing tubes exactly.
I owned a Shapeoko Pro for a month or so and loved it for what it was. Only reason I got rid of it was because I decided to take my small business in a different direction (laser cutting). Overall I thought it was a great machine (especially for it’s price point and being built/packaged in the US).
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We only used our CNC for sheet stock this year, so unfortunately I don’t think we can offer much advice here.
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I will say this: part of my summer plan is to develop a tube holding system for this machine. Give me a couple of months
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You could use either the tube magic system from ozzyboards or the wcp tube fixture
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or TubeTragic™
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We also received a shapeoko pro from a sponsor this year. We’re looking into the fog buster coolant system and I’m wondering what teams do about the mdf table on this machine?
Does the mdf get nasty from the coolant or is it OK? Is it worth replacing it with something like pvc lumber?
We haven’t used coolant yet, but honestly you shouldn’t need to. Especially if you use the vacuum. Unless you’re running some deep cuts, but I wouldn’t recommend cutting too deep in one pass on a machine like this.
Also, I think I have found our tube jig solution.
We should be able to make our own using the machine. Basically just model it off of the WCP jig, but adjust the mounting holes to fit the shapeoko and buy the fixture clamps.
If your mister is truly misting and not pouring out a load of lubricant, the MDF should be fine. We’ve been using the same piece of MDF for years with a good portion of our cuts on aluminum with mist and it’s still fine. It’s getting a bit thin from periodic resurfacing, but it’s not getting oil-logged or gross in any way. Our lubricant is Maglube LD-300L. It works great.
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I designed some tubing fixtures as a learning exercise when we first got our Shapeoko last summer. I came up with a simple design that can be clamped right on top of the existing wasteboard.
Design files are here: Dropbox - Fixturing - Simplify your life
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We have an X-Carve (1000mm square build); stiffened the y axis and have slowly been upgrading the Z axis. Have it to a point where we’re comfortable machining tubing on it.
We used a 1/4 piece of Al sheet and used the xcarve to machine the surface square to the bed. Punched through holes and tapped them to mount some toggle clamps (with washers to shim the rear, so the ‘thrust’ vector contains a downward component). Used a 2x1 as a fence, and made some custom jigs to help set the origin. We’re seeing runout of ~5thou across 30in of length, and edge to edge precision in the same amount. It works well for us and is getting extensive use this year. To do 1x2, we just use a second 2x1 as a spacer.
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