Another late night in the shop. I came home after work and immediately scampered down into the shop to use a tool that I have always had, but never knew how amazing it was!
You see, what makes me so happy on this particular night is that I cut these rosettes for my rose engine lathe build on our CNC machine at work, and I was finally going to have the opportunity to transfer these MDF patterns to my polycarbonate.
I first started by making some tape "bumpers" and sticking them down to my polycarbonate cutoff that I got from Midland Plastics.
I only was able to fit 4 rosettes per sheet, but in all honesty, that worked out perfectly because I only designed 8 rosettes.
I then tried to cut the polycarbonate as close as possible to my MDF form without cutting into it.
Ok now remember how I was raving about this tool that I have always had, but never knew how to use it? Well the tool I am referring to is the flush cut router bit! It was so simple to take my "rough" rosette shapes and turn them into what you see below.
The way the bit works is that there is a bearing the same size as the cutting diameter of the bit. So when you are getting ready to cut, just make sure that you are following your pattern by keeping the bearing against your pattern, and you will get perfect duplicates every time!
Even when there is complex geometry! Not to hate on the CNC machines, because I obviously used one in order to get my patterns. But it really makes me happy to learn some of these tricks from the older shop guys at BBCM. Frankie always taught us traditional methods of making before letting us use the CNC routers and 3d printers. It further cements the fact that you can't know one without learning the other. It makes you a more valuable employee to know both the digital and the traditional way of making things, or at least I think so.
Below you will see examples of the shapes that I was able to achieve:
I have all these different patterns, now I just need to get around to finishing the rose engine lathe itself!
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