Menu
What's new

Which Witch

Don Baer

Don Baer

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,425
Location
somewhere east of Queen Creek, AZ - South East of
Here is a hint as to my Halloween CNC Project. I have created a program from the attached JPG that I found on line and will attempt to cut it out on the CNC. I then plan to paint it black on the front side and white on the back side. I then will put white lights on the back side so when I hang it against the side of the house it will create a Halo effect around the silhouette. That's the game plan anyhow.
1603497043809.png
 
I have no experience but I guess that the wiskars of the cat and the witch hair may turn to be too fragile, depending on what material you use.
Is it going to sheet metal or plastic?
 
I quickly take you through the step I took to create the program. A jpeg image is not a drawing as such so in order to use it one must create some line as such. In Fusion 360 you can import the drawing direct as a jpeg and use the drawing tools to create an outline which can be tedious. I choose to convert the image to a SVG file and import it that way. There are a number of jpg to SVG converters you can use and they are all free. Here is the image imported into Fusion as an SVG file. It took all of 5 minutes to upload the jpeg, convert it to a .svg file and save it to my computer as witch.svg and import it into Fusion.
1603560811002.png
 
Now with a drawing I can treat it like any other drawing and edit it in fusion, add any thing I want.
1603561231903.png
Next I need to convert it from 1 2 D image to a 2 1/2 D image using the extrude tool Since I am planning to use 1/2" MDF I will extrude the drawing to a depth of 1/2"
1603561269357.png
 
Last but Not least I will switch from the CADD to the Cam portion of Fusion by selecting manufacture from the menu and create a setup program where I will tell Fusion what I will use for stock to create the image from. In This case I will basically tell the program that I will use a piece of stock 1 inch larger than the image I want to cut out.
1603561510041.png

From here it is a simple matter of telling fusion how much of the image to cut out tell it the tool(s) I will use (1/8" flat end mill) and how much material to remove each pass and Fusion will generate the G codes.
OK Now I am off the the shop. The temperature out side is 82 degrees nice and comfortable.
 
well I stopped the run before it could do the details of the witches arms and of the cats leg. The MFD was no behaving very well and my tabs weren't holding so I decided for now just to use the cutout. This will do for this Halloween but I will remake it perhaps a little bigger and using better material. The MDF is just what I had on hand. I think a nice piece of 1/2 BB plywood would be a better choice and maybe half again as big This one is 18x 25 so maybe 27 x37 would be a nice size and allow more detail.20201024_133103.jpg This was a learning experience and the first time the CNC had been turned on since July so it was a lot of fun just getting out in the shop. The black paint is drying now and then I'll flip it and do the white. I'll do the lights and hang it tomorrow.
 
well after the paint dried I pulled out my vast inventory of Christmas light and although I have literally thousands of light. and hundreds of different strings I didn't have any spare white lights. I tried a 100 light string of orange miniature lights but was very disappointed with the results. They are not bright enough for what I want so I ill order in some LED lights and hopefully get em in in time to put out Next Saturday. If not then There is always next year. Also I learned something that I can use for a Christmas project I am starting and the knowledge as will be useful for that project. After all Christmas is only 60 days away.
20201025_130700.jpg

spent he rest of the day cleaning the shop and giving the CNC a tune up. I found a few loose bolts and discovered that the large beam for the X axis was out of level with the table so I re aligned it and re flatened the spoil board. The spindle coolant was about 1/3 low and there were no leaks so I attributed it to evaporation due to the machine sitting out in the shop where lord knows what the temps got to in July August and Sept. We had a record number of day where the temps were 115 or higher (145 days) so it no wonder. I have Medicare appointments all week including Saturday so I may not get out into the shop again until Sunday next.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top