Question: Why Not Make More Than One?
For every digital woodworker, sooner or
later you’re going ask yourself an important question: If you’re going to the
trouble of making something, why not make more than one while you’re at it? In
the previous post, I gave an
example of CNC Router part making by showing a shape being cut out of a board.
It was a simple triangle, but it demonstrated two important benefits of a CNCRouter. These tools have the ability to make accurate and difficult cuts.
But, I hinted at another part making benefit: repeatability. I cut out eight of
those triangles in less than 20 minutes.
A CNC Router’s accuracy benefits
woodworkers when you need repeatability. They are excellent tools for making
not just one part, but multiple, identical parts. So, instead of machining just
one stool leg for example, why not make the other three legs at the same time?
Or you might choose to make several stools, while you’re at it. Accurate part
making on a CNC Router is something that can be multiplied.
There’s more than one way to make parts
Making more than one part at a time
with a CNC Router is a big topic that I’ll cover in detail later on, but this
is a good time to introduce the basic concepts and methods of making multiples.
You have choices in how you approach this.
Like a lot of processes in woodworking,
there’s more than one way to do this. In general, the methods are a combination
of how you layout your drawings and how you set up your CNC Router machine. The
same approaches would be valid if you were using a laser cutter.
The first method is to
layout parts on a drawing of the board you’re cutting in your CAD program.
This method works just the way that it
sounds. In your CAD program, lay out your parts on a drawing of the board
you’re planning on cutting the parts from. Take the drawing of the individual
parts and move them around and lay them out on a measured drawing of the board
you’re cutting from until they fit, leaving extra room between the individual
parts for the bit to travel and extra along the sides for clamping the board to
the table. For example, with a 3/8” bit I leave at least a 1/2” gap between
parts. Prepare the actual board as you normally would — making sure the board
is perfectly flat on the bottom so that it won’t move when clamped to the
table. Position the board in place and begin cutting.
The second method is to setup accurate part registration of
blank stock.
If you set up the CNC Router, blank
stock, and your cut properly, you can easily make multiple, identical parts. To
do that, you need to first decide on an “origin point” that you reference to.
Usually, that’s the position in your CAD drawing where the X and Y axes
intersect. Then set up the same position on the CNC Router’s bed making that
your CNC Router’s origin so that they match.
Next you setup stops on the table so
that your blank stock is held at the same location every time. Then clamp, mill
and repeat until you’re done.
An example of three parts being cut on a CNC Router at the same
time.
Let’s take this idea even further
If you’re set up for it, you can take
the idea of repeatability even farther. I regularly mill up to 8 identical
furniture parts at a time on my machine. I can do this because my CNC Router’s
table is laid out for pin-register accuracy and I make good use of a
companion modular system of various clamping jigs and fixtures that I created
to take advantage of it. Thus, I can have multiple, accurately placed
positioning setups on my table and quickly mill several parts at the same time.
As I’ve said before, making accurate
parts with a CNC Router is one of the best uses of the machine. And now you
know that it’s not just about the accuracy of its cuts. The ability to produce
multiple parts makes a CNC Router an even more useful tool in a woodworker’s
workshop. The downside, of course, is that you’ll have fewer excuses to only
make one of your latest woodworking creations.
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