Proof of Concept - Plexi Plates on my CNC

[johnnyreece]

Kind of excited. I have a little CNC machine and experimented making a Plexi-style faceplate with a scrap piece. Laid out the design in DIYLC, then exported to pdf. I imported it to Inkscape and reversed the print, then exported to gcode. I sprayed the back side of my plexiglass after a light sanding to rough up the surface, and ran it through the CNC. Had a rough first go (which can be seen in one of the pics), but the second try was good enough to backfill with black. I think it turned out well, but I think the font size needs bumped up a little. Not yet ready for primetime, but getting there!

[xtian]

Dig it! Please show your CNC and link to buy!

[jabguit]

You didn't what type of CNC you used - router or laser?

cheers,

[johnnyreece]

Thanks for the look! The exact one I got is out of stock, but the 3018 CNC is pretty generic: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DH ... UTF8&psc=1

That model comes with both the laser and router for like $200. I've only used the router so far, and router-only models are even cheaper, if you want to go that route. I'm working on upgrading it to a 3040 (nominal only; it actually makes it 30x36). That will allow me to do some larger plates (although, it does still take some massaging of the files to split them in two for the bigger prints). What's handy is, I've used this same machine to cut my turret board, as well. I've made up a tutorial here: https://ampgarage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36429. If there's enough interest, I might try to type one up for the faceplates, as well. Here's a pic of the turret board I made with it:

[Phil_S]

Nice work. Looks great. You'll be getting incremental improvements as you continue to use it. Are you able to cut an aluminum chassis with this machine?

[johnnyreece]

Nah, this machine is pretty puny. I'm not even supposed to be able to engrave aluminum, let alone cut it. I do keep getting incrementally better. My biggest thing that causes so much frustration is dull bits. I'm still using the cheap ones that came with it, and (again, you can see my screw up in one of the pics) a dull bit just destroys the engraving. My first attempt at engraving anything was on this sheet:

You can see on the first two, a lot of the detail is blown out because of the blunted bit. I aborted the second run, as I could see it was going south. I also found my spoilboard wasn't level (you can see the lines in the middle where I just jogged the machine along and how the depth tapers). So, after a new bit and a resurfaced spoilboard, I got a couple cleaner engravings. It's definitely wise to practice on scrap!

[jabguit]

so it's a router?

[johnnyreece]

Yep, router is all I’ve used so far.

[johnnyreece]

Okay, so, after a little trial and error, I got a finished product. I found out my software was scaling my original, which resulted in a print that didn't match up. I also discovered Weber's chassis drawing had an important error, which caused me to lay my panel out backwards. So, two errors sorted out on just one try! After taking care of that, I got an acceptable print/carve/whatever. Here she is!