Made My First CNC Parts

[jteneyck]

Not cheap by any means, but that's not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be. I suppose if you have the need, it makes a lot more sense. Have you tried using it to flatten panels or slabs?

That's one thing I plan to use it for after it arrives.   I'm still looking at probably another 6 weeks before delivery.  

John

[atgcpaul]

Very cool!  Excited to see what you'll do with it.

[jteneyck]

A final installment on the cabinet.  I transferred the holes milled by the CNC to a piece of plywood then added some stops so I could use it as a drilling template on the ends of the shelves.  



Had I thought about it just a bit more I would have cut that on the CNC, too.  But the hand made one worked great.  To make assembly easier for my customer I put a black ring around every hole where a dowel needed to be inserted.    



With a dowel in all the required holes, 



the shelves could be lined up with the end frames.



After pressing the end frame against the shelf, a barrel nut is installed in the predrilled hole in the bottom of the shelf and then a bolt is installed.



After one side was done you move to the other side and repeat:



Then add the upper frames:



and the top:



And finally install the hairpin legs on the bottom.  I was a little surprised to find that the cabinet was just as rigid as the one I built a few weeks ago with glued up construction.  The dowels and bolts produced a very rigid structure.  




For anyone interested, the finish is Rubio Monocoat - Pure.  One coat and done; couldn't be any simpler to apply.  I broke it down again and boxed it up for shipment.  It all went into a box that was 57 x 17 x 6". Everything was padded with bubble wrap and the box was lined with 1/4" plywood or 3/4" foam.  The packaged weighed 65 lbs.  Shipping the fully assembled cabinet would have been at least $175.  As a flat pack the cost was $50.  

This project was mostly traditional woodworking, but the CNC made the critical work of putting the holes in exactly the right places much easier than it would have been manually.  I can see a lot of utility for this with future projects.  

John