After keeping it under wraps for over 6 months, I finally revealed the secret lurking in The Magic Box on the final episode of The CNC with Dave Show at the end of July, 2017. That secret was that I’m building a Gatton CNC.[expand title = “Read More”] The project was kept under wraps for a couple of reasons. One reason was because a lot of work had to be done before I could even start the build. I’ve made it no secret that I basically work out of an over-glorified garden shed. My shop/shed is 8’ wide and 12’ long on the outside. Every tool I owned was piled…

There are times when you need to join vectors to create a profile toolpath, but in doing so, you’ll also have to trim away vectors or sections of vectors that you can’t eliminate. What I mean by that is that if you trim a vector, you lose that vector’s shape, or you lose some detail you’re trying to save. Take the picture below for example.[expand title= “Read More”]   Obviously, it’s a representation of the state of Michigan. The author of the file* wanted to join the Upper Peninsula to the main body of the state using two arcs to connect them. To compound the issue, he also added the…

The Breakout Board and Mach3 Toolsetter Screen Set This is a companion article that goes with my YouTube video, posted here. Easily, the most popular question I get is how I hooked up my Triple Edge Finder to my Xylotex Drive Box for use with my Shoestring Budget CNC Router. This article is part 1 of a series in which I’ll explain what I needed to buy, how I hooked everything up, what settings I used in Mach3, and how I use it in normal day to day operations. [expand title=”Read More”] To get started, we’ll need to get the Triple Edge Finder itself, obviously. You can get yours over at…

Converting from Metric to Imperial is easy. Have you ever imported a DXF file into your Vectric software, only to find that it’s incredibly huge, or unbelievably small? Well, maybe the vector file was drawn in a different unit of measure.  [expand title=”Read More”] When you import a DXF file into VCarve, Aspire, or Cut 2D, the software imports the file as drawn. It doesn’t convert from one unit of measure to another. So if you’re working in Imperial units and import a file that was 200 mm long, Vectric assumes that it’s 200 inches. Obviously that’s a problem. Usually, converting those vectors from metric to Imperial solves the problem. To…

One of the side effects of importing vectors from a separate CAD or graphics program is that you’re importing those vectors as drawn by the file’s creator. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it can lead to side issues if some of the basics aren’t addressed. Among these basics are the numbers of points in the vectors and what type of vectors they are. [expand title=”Read More”] As I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, there are three types of vectors: arcs, curves, and lines. All vectors are based on one of these three types. It may or may not be readily apparent as to which type of vector the file’s…

Sometimes we get what looks like a design that’s ready for toolpathing, even though it’s not.  Trying to calculate even simple profile toolpaths just won’t work. Sometimes you’ll get an error message in VCarve, telling you that a certain number of vectors will be ignored if you proceed. In most cases, this error message is caused by open vectors that just need to be joined. But what do you do when they won’t join? [expand title=”Read More”] Normally you can just select the open vectors and use the Join Open Vectors tool in the Edit Vectors section. But what if that doesn’t work? In the video, I’ll show you some different…

Sometimes we take the simplest things for granted. As an example, I started making CNC videos a little less than a year ago, and I thought I was making basic videos for the absolute beginner. Well, it turns out I haven’t been doing that at all. I fell into the same trap a lot of other people make, and that is assuming that folks already know what I’m talking about when I use certain words and phrases. Take the word Vector. I had never given it much thought. I figured that if a person was interested in CNC, they probably already had some basic knowledge of how they worked, and…

I hate double-sided tape. I mean with a flaming red passion. Why? Pull up a chair and I’ll tell you. [expand title=”Read More”] In my experience, the double-sided tape I’ve used to mount a project or template falls into two main categories; either the adhesive is too weak, allowing the material you’re trying to hold to move, or it’s too strong, requiring you to use extreme measures such as open flame or blasting to get the material off after you’re finished running it, or abandon the project in place and move on. Nope – I don’t like it at all. I plodded along in life, using the horrible stuff, figuring I…