New Build in Central New York

@dkj4linux, have you used a needle cutter for cardboard? What about something 15mm thick?

I’m in Mexico and the work I do at the Adaptive Design shop is on James St. in Syracuse @wfredette.
Here’s another little corner chair that is pretty popular with our clinicians that I will cut out on my Lowrider.

What sorts of projects do you tackle with your CNC?

One of my sons goes to school in Syracuse. Your designs are interesting to me, as I’m a pediatrician. So far, I’ve only been using mine for some furniture and musical instrument projects, but there’s definitely some great potential for helping children with it.

I’ve torture-tested a lot of needle cutters using cardboard (and even coroplast) and it indeed will reveal any weakness in your cutter. But it can be done with thinner cardboard and a tight, sturdy, cutter…

Most of my cutters were designed for cutting foams up to about 6mm thick… and were only built with a stroke of 12mm or so. I’m not aware of anyone ever setting the stroke more than a few millimeters beyond that. Cardboard 15mm thick would definitely be a “test” of a cutter designed with adequate stroke… and it would do incredibly well to survive all the feed/speed testing to find “optimal” for that material.

I’d say “Go for it!”… and let us know how it goes.

:man_shrugging:

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Good morning @wfredette. A friend of mine from ARISE who’s been lurking this post noticed that you were a pediatrician. Awesome that you have such diverse interests and life experience.

We work with an amazing doctor at the Spina Bifida clinic at Upstate. She is active in pointing patients toward us that are a good match for our resources. Upstate even invited a contingent of us to go to Ecuador a year and a half or so to work with an AD shop in Ibarra, Ecuador.

I must admit I have had some life changing experiences working with these individuals and their families. We try to wrap all our resources together, 3D printing, the cardboard work and now this will add another dimension to what we can accomplish.

My personal unit has been more of a personal life interest as well as a proof of concept for the AD shop. It’s looking good so far. I’m currently working on an at home experience for our recipients where I’m plotting guidelines and basic instructions on a single piece cardboard project (a cellphone holder) and then cutting out the outline with an 1/8" Down/Up cut bit to give our recipients and families a hands on experience with cardboard.

Covid has driven our busy little shop remote like everywhere else…
Well thanks for introducing yourself and rock on with the router!

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These are aawesome @dkj4linux. Again I’m going to work at getting solid with the machine and Estlcam first then I may look at these more involved approaches. The right bit/feed/speed combination testing has been working as a proof of concept for us. We’ll see… Thanks

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This is iteration #2 of my pen mount design for the MPCNC Lowrider 2. This pen holder has detents for raised and plotting position. It can be locked in place with a 5/16 wingnut (probably a bit overkill)

Link: Upgraded Pen Holder

This is iteration #2 of my pen mount design for the MPCNC Lowrider 2. This pen holder has detents for raised and plotting position. It can be locked in place with a 5/16 wingnut (probably a bit overkill) I think there will be one more iteration with a spring loaded pen on bearings so that the spring will either hold it up or apply some down pressure so the pen will simply pivot up if I make a newbie mistake or if the drawing surface isn’t a perfectly flat plane.)

I’m still trying to work out the Estlcam workflow for using the pen without having to raise the router up every time I want to make a plot. Working with the cardboard means a project’s workflow might involve plots and cuts. I break them out as separate G-Code files but there’s still the physical side of the workflow to consider. My concept of setting the pen lower than the bit means that if the bit is set to Z0 the pen paths have to be in a positive Z height. Not exactly sure how to do that. I was just turning the adjustment plate of the router and raising it up with the pen and the bit set at Z0.

Still trying to get my head wrapped around the workflows… Does Marlin on the Rambo recognize G53…59 commands?