My OneFinity has Landed

[John TenEyck]

After a long 8 weeks and 5 days my Journeyman was delivered by UPS this past Tuesday. Fortunately, everything arrived in good shape. I have to say, 1F has made assembly of the main unit very easy. They have a well written, easy to follow, assembly manual. After unpacking the three boxes it took only about an hour to put it together. Plug and play cables make wiring it a snap. Here are the three main components:




After hooking up the wiring it looked like this:



I'll clean up the wiring later. For now I just want to use the thing after waiting so long for it to arrive.

My first attempt at flattening the spoilboard was a miserable failure. I had no idea that MDF has tension in it. I only used 4 screws to hold down that 32 x 48" panel. When I milled off the surface to flatten it it wanted to curl up. Plan B. I took it off, cut it into 6" wide strips, and attached each piece with 6 recessed screws, then flattened it again. Now it's good.



I also added grid lines 2" OC and 1/4" dowel holes on most of the grid intersections. I'm ready to put it to work.

My first impressions are that the Journeyman is really robust for a hobby price unit. Those X-axis tubes are 2" diameter, the Y-axis are 35 mm. The palm router is the limiting factor but I think it will work fine until I upgrade to a spindle at some point. I'm also very impressed with the Dust Deputy I bought to use with my shop vac for dust collection. I did not clean up after flattening the spoilboard and cutting the grid and dowel holes before taking this picture.

I'm really excited to see what new directions the CNC will take my woodworking.

John

[Bruce Page]

Congrats John, that looks like a nice CNC. Have fun with it.
What cam/cad package did you go with?

[John TenEyck]

Thanks Bruce. I'm having fun for sure. I haven't been this excited about woodworking in a long time.

I went with V-Carve Pro. I tried Fusion 360 a year or so ago, but it was so foreign from SketchUp that I never got over the initial hump. When I decided to buy a CNC, I looked at several different software packages. V-Carve Pro won out because it seemed pretty easy to learn yet powerful, SketchUp imports into it w/o many issues, and Vectric's tutorials are top notch aside from the British accent. I really liked that Vectric lets you download any of their software for free with no time limit on evaluation, and that it's fully functional except that you can't save toolpaths.

John

[Carl Beckett]

I went with V-Carve Pro. I tried Fusion 360 a year or so ago, but it was so foreign from SketchUp that I never got over the initial hump.

John

I find this can sometimes be the biggest limitation to getting full use from a machine like this. It is much more than the machine itself, it is the end to end process of designing and creating and producing output. So give yourself plenty of time to LEARN and use the software and all the steps of converting to machine code. The more comfortable you are with that will make producing something a snap, and thus you will use it more and more.

VCarve can take STL files. And you can generate design in VCarve. Like you say, there is a large enough community for questions and tutorials.

One of the first CNC projects I did that was great fun was some inlay work. You can import and image and create inlays using vcarve and a V shaped bit. But once you get going, you are going to find a thousand things you want to do with it. I havent set up a vertical hold down, but think I will try that at some point for edge work such as dovetails.

Another consideration that I learned from the 3D printing community: You do not have to create all files from scratch. There are a LOT of files out there already created and you can simply download and scale some of those. (then share on this forum your favorites!).

Look forward to what you make with it!

[Jim Becker]

Congrats, John. I think you'll enjoy having the CNC in your shop setup...it's a great tool! And designing virtually is pretty kewel, too. I like being able to work things out without wasting material (even if it's scrap) and doing the "what if".

[John TenEyck]

Thanks all. One of the things I'm working on using this for is to at least rough carve the seat of a Hal Taylor rocking chair, to save my friend the drudgery involved with that process. I'm really having to stretch my knowledge to model that in SketchUp, but I'm getting close and hope to be able to try it on some scrap in the near future, after I have a little more experience with the 1F under my belt. I also plan to put a vertical surface into the torsion box to be able to cut dovetails, finger joints, etc. You'll notice that the design of the table and cabinets anticipate that upgrade.

You're right about learning the software being key to success, Carl. Some things are pretty straight forward, others not so much. For the life of me I can't figure out how to create a toolpath to cut a rabbet on the edge or end of a part, except by a convoluted process of adding a separate box that overlaps the part and then running a pocket in that box. There must be an easier way?

I bought the CNC to augment my woodworking, but also as a way to keep my mind engaged. So far, it's working.

John

[Jim Becker]

I bought the CNC to augment my woodworking, but also as a way to keep my mind engaged. So far, it's working.

I suspect you'll accomplish both goals, John. It has for me. CNC tied together my lifelong immersion in tech as well as the arts and I find it just plain mentally stimulating to think things through, work them out and then finally produce what was in my head...accurately, even. Most of the time.

Carving chair seats is an excellent task for the CNC to take away what some of us consider "drudgery" while leaving the finesse work which is a lot more enjoyable. I did that for a maker a number of times for exactly that reason...it allowed them to focus on what makes their product special while at the same time reducing the time (and cost of time) per unit.

[Kevin Jenness]

I can't figure out how to create a toolpath to cut a rabbet on the edge or end of a part, except by a convoluted process of adding a separate box that overlaps the part and then running a pocket in that box. There must be an easier way?

Use the offset tool to make a line parallel to the edge you want to rabbet and cut a profile on the outside of that line. You may want to lengthen the rabbet line slightly at either end. To offset one edge of a box with joined line segments (either created as a box or by joining the line segments), use node editing to break the figure apart. Node editing is a powerful tool.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Congrats John, I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, got my 1F up and running a couple of weeks ago.

Still putting the finishing touches on my setup, the cabinet etc., maybe that's me being a little apprehensive of the machines capabilities.

I'm going to start off making some clamps and things and other utilitarian items to help me get to grips with Vcarve Pro and then maybe start trying out some inlays. I need to put my artisans hat on, or at least try and find it, I too much of an engineer in my project thought process.

I see all the wonderful projects and things, other are making with these CNC's.

I bought a Shaper Origin, a couple of years ago. It has worked well for the items I made with it, i.e. I've not had any failures or disappointments, but I now feel that is pretty much a redundant tool and maybe time to offload it.

[Bruce Page]

Thanks Bruce. I'm having fun for sure. I haven't been this excited about woodworking in a long time.

I went with V-Carve Pro. I tried Fusion 360 a year or so ago, but it was so foreign from SketchUp that I never got over the initial hump. When I decided to buy a CNC, I looked at several different software packages. V-Carve Pro won out because it seemed pretty easy to learn yet powerful, SketchUp imports into it w/o many issues, and Vectric's tutorials are top notch aside from the British accent. I really liked that Vectric lets you download any of their software for free with no time limit on evaluation, and that it's fully functional except that you can't save toolpaths.

John

Vectric’s V-Carve Pro is very user friendly and capable. The tutorials are very well done, aside from the RP accent, lol.
I had broad experience running CNC machinery but almost none in design. I thought it was very beneficial to work through Vectric's project tutorials one at a time.

[John TenEyck]

That's exactly what I'm doing Chris. My first real "project" after completing the spoilboard, which was a learning experience by itself, was to cut some clamps out of 1/2" plywood. Simple little project that took over 2 hours for me to work out in VCarve and something like 7 minutes to cut on the CNC! But it was great fun and I added to my knowledge base.

Even engineers have a creating side - I'm one, too. You'll be fine.

John

[John TenEyck]

I can't figure out how to create a toolpath to cut a rabbet on the edge or end of a part, except by a convoluted process of adding a separate box that overlaps the part and then running a pocket in that box. There must be an easier way?

Use the offset tool to make a line parallel to the edge you want to rabbet and cut a profile on the outside of that line. You may want to lengthen the rabbet line slightly at either end. To offset one edge of a box with joined line segments (either created as a box or by joining the line segments), use node editing to break the figure apart. Node editing is a powerful tool.

The Offset Tool worked like a charm; thanks very much Kevin. I didn't know you could use the profile tool along just one vector; a sign of how new I still am at all of this.

John

[Jim Becker]

Not only can you use the profile tool along an open vector, you can control the direction and side so it cuts where you want it to. It's important to get a handle on node editing in that respect...that's a very powerful thing while you will find to be both an important drawing/design tool but also an important problem solver.

But also don't rule out using a pocketing toolpath with a closed vector for some of these kinds of thing along edges. It really depends upon the project.

[Kevin Jenness]

The Offset Tool worked like a charm; thanks very much Kevin. I didn't know you could use the profile tool along just one vector; a sign of how new I still am at all of this.

John

You're welcome. I'm sure you will get familiar with the basics of the program quickly. The training videos are very useful. Vectric really makes an effort to educate their customers. If you haven't already checked it out, the Vectric forum is full of helpful people who are real experts.

One thing you can do in node edit mode is define the starting point for vectors which can be quite useful.

That looks like a nice setup. The mdf potato chip thing is real. I glue my spoilboard down.

How do you plan to hold work? You might consider rabbeting your spoilboard sections to make t-slots for hold-down clamps. Vacuum is also quite useful for unobstructed clamping. I have a low-level through the table setup, but I also use fixtures screwed to the table and connected to my Gast vacuum pump for smaller parts.

[John TenEyck]

Thanks Kevin. I've been watching many of Vectric's tutorials, some multiple times. They are very well done and, eventually, it will all soak in.

If you look closely, you will see rabbets in the spoilboard pieces. I cut them on the TS so toilet bolts will slide into them for use with my hold down clamps. The first project I ran on the CNC after flattening the spoilboard was to makes some hold down clamps. Simple things but they work wel and cost almost nothing. It took me at least 2 hours to design the clamps and run the toolpaths, and about 7 minutes for the machine to cut them. I need to pick it up my pace!

Got any pictures you're willing to share of your vacuum hold down system? I have a spare Gast vacuum pump.

Glad to hear the MDF potato chip phenomena is real. I was hesitant to glue down the spoilboard but now realize I can mill it off with the CNC, so I may do that in the future.

It's all new, and it's all exciting.

John