Shapeoko CNC build night

[Chris Weiss]

The generous people at Inventables have donated a Shapeoko Full Kit to
Arch Reactor, and next Tuesday we'll start building it! Build will
start sometime between 6:30 and 7, then we'll take a break for the
business meeting and continue after.

If you'd like to see what it take to build one, stop by and check it out!

Then, watch the list and/or calendar for the next date because
Inventables is also sending us some materials to host a workshop so
you can learn how to design and mill a part! attending the workshop
will be free, but there will be a limited number of materials.

[Brad Tissi]

Wow, that is awesome. Can someone add that to the calendar?

[Bob S.]

Build night starts now..... Let the fun begin....

On Tuesday, June 24, 2014 8:06:57 PM UTC-5, ||cw wrote:

[Andrew Ricke]

Let me know how it all goes since I can't be there. 

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[Chris Weiss]

last nights progress http://i.imgur.com/ccE7b9i.jpg

I'm told this was the "hard part", and I will say some of it was a bit
tricky. an extra set of hands certainly helped a lot.

[Bob S.]

[Chris Weiss]

more progress http://imgur.com/a/ZBDr3

need a case for the arduino and control board though. maybe that can
be one of the first projects :)

[Andrew Ricke]

There are a few good ones that are printable on thingiverse. One I think will mount the boards to the feet for better cable management.

Andrew
-Sent from my iPhone

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[Chris Weiss]

and more progress added to the album http://imgur.com/a/ZBDr3

arduino mounted, drawing with sharpie, and carving with dremel.

used http://jscut.org/jscut.html to make gcode from an SVG (make sure
to check offsets so you don't get any x/y negitives), then
https://github.com/winder/Universal-G-Code-Sender to send the gcode to
the GRBL shield. the machine config is stored on the shield.

[Andrew Ricke]

Very nice.  No shots of the board mount, but that's ok. I'll come by this weekend to check it out. 

Next goal a dust shoe?

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[Andrew Beals]

So the tapping Shapeoko mentions in their FAQ is into the ends of the support beams?  Ugh.  How deep do you have to go? 

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[Chris Weiss]

yes. just deep enough for the screw you put in. I went most of the
way of the tap because it wasn't that much extra

[Andrew Ricke]

You'll thank yourself later for tapping as deep as possible. Trust me on that :)

On Wednesday, July 16, 2014, Chris Weiss <cwe...@gmail.com> wrote:

yes.  just deep enough for the screw you put in.  I went most of the
way of the tap because it wasn't that much extra

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[Andrew Ricke]

Dirty references not intended, but appreciated all the same. 

[Chris Weiss]

just got notice that Easel is out of Beta and open to all.

http://www.easel.com/

[EschewObfuscation]

Their website is so slick I don't understand what it is they're promoting. I gather you have to have a shapeoko on site, cad up your work on their site. Then what, is your shapeoko supposed to be net connected in some fashion so they control your machine? Or does it export G Code for you? or...?

[Chris Weiss]

the shapeoko is connected to a PC via USB, then you run an Easel
sender program and log into the site with that, and then you get the
option to send to it from the browser. I don't think they have to be
on the same PC either.

[EschewObfuscation]

Ah, okay. So they're putting the CAD and CAM steps on a web-hosted app, probably java, I'm guessing? Well that avoids some configuration and version update issues, I suppose. Do they have a business model?

[Chris Weiss]

the sell materials, and those material specs are already in the
program. they also sell the shapeoko.

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[EschewObfuscation]

Ah, so it's ultimately an ease of use upgrade for their platform. check.

[Andrew Ricke]

Yes you can export GCode from it, so you can use it for other machines (like mine).  I'll play around with it later today to see if they fixed my previous issues with it.  Hadn't had time to keep up with all the development logs, but I did see at least one note about fixing the ability to move objects with precision.

I think you can do simple text and monochrome image engraving/cutouts (basic 2.5D milling), but anything truly 3D in nature you'll want a more complex (however expensive) CAM.  They are trying to popularize the term "3D carving" to match with 3D printing's popularity,  so I assume they'll keep developing it to go from 2.5D milling to more 3D abilities.

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 5:57 PM, EschewObfuscation <google...@mailfilter.33mail.com> wrote:

Ah, so it's ultimately an ease of use upgrade for their platform. check.

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[Chris Weiss]

try this: import the "logo_bw.svg" from the ar brand zip file.
that's one serious pain to deal with. even with "combine", there's no
proper scale method, so you have to go math up your wanted width and
height and type it in.

might as well just design it all in something else if I have to use
other tools to make it work

[Andrew Ricke]

So in 5 minutes I built a simple "Cubical Sign" that had my name on it.  It was only that easy because I didn't care about exact sizes (so I said roughly 2in tall, and however long it needed for my name).  It was smart enough to tell me if the font was too small for the bit size.  On the other hand, I couldn't dictate 2 different bit sizes (1 for the engraving for the name and a 2nd for cutting out the rectangle).

I tried the bottle opener from their svg.  The screw holes are so small that if you click on them it automatically tries to resize, move, or otherwise alter them because all their "grab" points overlap.  There's no way to select them without doing this and no way to zoom in to try a better select.

So yeah, finish everything in inkscape and hope that you can make it know the different between a cut-through and engrave/pocket cut.

If anyone wants to get serious with a design for the shapeoko, I got CamBam available to use (though it has a generously long trial).

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[Chris Weiss]

I've had much better luck with makercam and jscut and universal g-code
sender. jscut is actually pretty slick

[Chris Weiss]

and some more new features?


-----
This was a big week for the Easel team: we made Easel publicly
available to anybody with an Inventables account. If you’re a new
user, welcome!

A lot of people have asked about machine jogging controls, and we’re
happy to say you can now jog your machine through Easel. A control
panel is now part of the Carving walkthrough - you can use the buttons
or your keyboard to control your Shapeoko.

We’ve also spruced up the UI and added the ability to resize the 3D
view pane. The 2D view will now always show your entire work area,
instead of getting cut off on certain resolution screens.

Additionally, we’ve released an update to Easel Local that fixes some bugs.

As always, thanks for your feedback. If you’d like to help us improve
Easel, we have a Google group set up for users to email with the dev
team and each other. You can request an invite at
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/easel-beta-users

Happy carving!

-The Easel Team