Curved surfaces; tenon jigs

I just saw the hB this weekend and am close to pulling the trigger. I have a question about engraving on a lightly curved surface. Is the software and hardware capable of engraving on a small wooden paddle? The curve is shallow but it is curved.

Also. I see a user did a box joint with the wood vertical. Is there a plan out there for a jig for box joints, dovetails, and other joinery where the wood can be repeatably cut?

Finally, do you see any reason why I could not cut carbon fiber?

Hi,

Carving or engraving on a curved surface is pretty much a function of the CAM software you are using, not the Handibot, which itself is highly 3D capable. There are a number of systems that will output to a Handibot that would accomplish it. And, it turns out, that this is a new feature of the V-Carve Pro software that is shipped with Handibot. It allows you to project a a v-carving or engraving tool path onto a curved model.

On the question of joints, there are many potential ways to go about it, and fixturing material under a Handibot is certainly an option. You might peruse the ShopBot forum for general approaches to digital joinery and ideas on how to approach it with a small CNC tool ...

Ted Hall, ShopBot Tools

Spugnardi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just saw the hB this weekend and am close to
> pulling the trigger. I have a question about
> engraving on a lightly curved surface. Is the
> software and hardware capable of engraving on a
> small wooden paddle? The curve is shallow but it
> is curved.
Just do it, you won't be sorry.Yes, Vcarve will do this but unless you already have extensive experience expect to walk before you run!
>
> Also. I see a user did a box joint with the wood
> vertical. Is there a plan out there for a jig for
> box joints, dovetails, and other joinery where the
> wood can be repeatably cut?
To my knowledge, there are no plans yet for joinery jigs. What the handibot lacks most is more people excited enough to work through things like this and share them! Work something out and share it and you will have done everyone a big favor.
>
> Finally, do you see any reason why I could not cut
> carbon fiber?
I have been thinking about trying G10, there is no reason the hb could not cut CF just a matter of the right cutter, feed, and speed. Also you need to be aware that CF is quite nasty when airborne, not quite asbestos but pretty nasty. You would want a vacuum, a safe way to empty it, and a respirator. If you are not willing to take precautions for your safety, you should skip it and cut wood and plastic.

It seems like an end cutting jig that you could mount on a table could be pretty simple, like the attached image. It would just need to stay square and have a fence and surface to clamp to to accurately position the blank. If you needed to cut wider that the native 6-8", some accurate spacers might allow that?

Along with traditional joinery techniques there are some CNC specific ones that are pretty interesting. The VCarvePro software has a flat-cut dovetail Gadget that lets you cut dovetails without standing anying on end, and a Google search will turn up lots of other joining systems specifically created for CNC cutting.

Mark's right about cutting carbon fiber. While it's certainly do-able, along with the health issues from carbon dust it can also be death to motors and electronics. Could you use a drag knife to cut it?

Bill



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2015 07:57AM by Bill Young.