1911 Grips - Success!

Darren Wright

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Springfield, Missouri
My nephew asked me the other day if I could do some 1911 grips for him, so found some 3d models of some blank ones and got to playing with designs. This is what I came up with.
eaglegrips.jpg

Since my machine has been running pretty well and all my vcarve files have been working as they show on the preview, I went straight to trying it on some "good" wood. First step was hogging out the waste, which was done with a 1/4" upcut spiral, that worked as expected.
2015-10-18 20.02.00.jpg

The finishing 3d paths using the 1/8" ball nose didn't seem to be cutting deep enough though, as I was seeing the steps from the 1/4" bit. I decided a second pass lowering my z axis may be in order, so setup for that.
2015-10-18 20.41.04.jpg

However, the z axis appeared to have lost several steps right off the bat, eventually diving into the wood and snapping the bit.
2015-10-18 20.55.32.jpg 2015-10-18 20.55.36.jpg

This last run was with the dust boot removed, so other than perhaps I had it taking too big of a bite, I'm not sure what went wrong. I do have a smaller stepper on my z axis, so an upgrade to a larger motor may be in order.

I remounted the work after the last shot and tried running the rest of my operations to see if the hole alignments and cut-out was correct, but ended up losing steps on that bit also. Perhaps maple is a bit too hard, I did notice some similar problems on some white oak yesterday too.

I'll be giving this another try this week on some softer wood to see if everything goes as expected.
 
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Nice design, be interested to see what you find went wrong. With all you have done lately i would have thought same as you and just gone for it. I guess there is more to doing this cnc than meets the eye.

Something at some point that i would like to see is say all the CNC guys that are present on our forum taking the same file and running it and posting pics of the result. Sounds to me like most of you are using very similar software and would be interesting to see the variables that pop up.
 
I beginning to understand better the learning curve for you and the machine. Those grips should turn out nice. There is always a demand for custom pistol grips. You could be on to something.
 
Nice looking project, Darren! I'm sure the finished product will look great when you work out the bugs. It gives me another couple projects to think!
 
Thanks guys, my goal is to get the machine where is can produce product without me babysitting it. The types of woods, bits used, and little nuances that come with each operation are one of the final hurdles I need to get past. I'm starting to keep a log for these to reference so I don't have to repeat the same mistakes.

Biggest issue was I was taking too big of bight for the little ball nose bit, I'll reduce that on the next attempt. Also that I added the dust boot, the extra weight and drag of the brush add a little more load to the motor, which was already on edge. I've gone ahead and ordered a larger motor, same size as my x and y motors (425 oz/in), upgrading it from a 282 oz/in motor. In reality the z axis has just as much, if not more load than the x and y axis', which is the opposite of what I thought when I purchased it. It should be here in a few days and we'll give it another go.
 
Keeping a log sounds like a very prudent idea. With the laser, I've taken to creating a sample and writing down all the parameters I used to generate it right on the wood with it and will keep those as a a guide.
 
One thing I have noticed with lost steps is that they get lost when the "Z" retracts.
Loose steps going up - and the next time down it goes further.

I slowed the acceleration on the "Z" axis to correct it.

I would still go ahead and upgrade the "Z" axis stepper anyway.


yup, slowed it down to about 20 ipm and was still losing steps, but got notice the new motor shipped today. ;)
 
I hadn't used mine for several weeks. Drilling some end plates a week or so back and I was losing steps on my z. Lube on the lead screw turned out to be the problem. Liking the timing belts on the X and Y more and more all the time.
 
Just curious. Do you just trust your machine or do you sometimes just cut the holes and outline in some 1/8 to 1/4 stock before you spend all the time on the 3d part of the cut?
 
It would depend, the machine has been running pretty well prior to this, and in this case the entire job was supposed to take less than an hour. I'm planning to finish the hole and cutout operations on this one to test the fit before running another, so shouldn't be a total loss.

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This is just a sample, I'd do a border for the checkering in my final version, but I selected the outline of the grip, the larger recesses, and the outline of my center engravings. Then I selected the create design vector tool and used the following settings.

patternSettings.jpg

Repeat creating another design vector with an angle set at -60 (be sure to reset the amplitude and wavelength settings).

Select both sets of lines for hatching and group them, then select and create a profile operation, set to about .05mm deep, select to machine vectors "On" the line, and check the option to "Project path onto 3d model". Below is the out put of my test.

gripcheckeringsample.jpg
 
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