Novice Attempting Belt Buckle Design...have ?'s.
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 From:  BurrMan
2349.6 In reply to 2349.5 
Viper,
When you boolean the objects together, That will become your surface (the part inside of the buckle goes away) Your new surface is what you see. If you dont boolean them together, then when you bring it into your cam package there will be multiple objects and your letters would be .25 inches all the way to the bottom of the part. You could choose to control this with the cam package though, and since you have fairly flat surfaces, wouldnt want to do it in 3d anyway. You'de want to do it with profiles and pockets and control your depth from there.

There are many ways and it depends on what you want/need or what your cam package is capable of. (Make the solid then extract the edges for the profiling and pocketing)

What are you using to cam the part?

I'll post some examples in a bit!
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 From:  BurrMan
2349.7 In reply to 2349.6 
Hi Paul,
Here's some info. You said your just getting started in 3d, I just wasnt sure how far along the cnc path you were, so dont take offense, I'll post some basics.

If your going to cnc mill a part like this, normally it would just be pocket and profile operations. So you may draw something like this with MoI:



Then in your cam package you would define islands and pockets to create toolpath that looks like this:



When cut it would look like this:



Doing it in 3d allows you to create toolpath over a 3d model. This operation would take much longer:



But it gives an operator many more surfacing choices. Here's your model again with different toolpaths for different area's:



Normally a part like this would be just done with the wires.

I personally do my parts in 3d because of the power for future work. I can always extract the wires from the 3d model AND I can run other ops on my parts also.

MoI's models are very good for CNC work. Clean and workable!

Post back if I overstepped or if you want more info.

Burr

EDITED: 19 Jun 2012 by BURRMAN

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 From:  Anis
2349.8 In reply to 2349.7 
Hi Burr....

What is your CAM Software ?
I want to start learn CAM Software :)
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 From:  BurrMan
2349.9 In reply to 2349.8 
BobCad/CAM V23. Do you have a machine? That is also important to learn how, and get your output to work with your machine controller. We also use a pc based Controller called Mach3. you can demo both these. The BobCad package is Dongle based so you can do whatever you want, just cant post code or save the models. But you can bring in your MoI stuff and practice doing Cam operations with it.
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 From:  Anis
2349.10 In reply to 2349.9 
Hi Burr,

No, I dont have a machine.
But basically, I know how milling and turning machine work.
I have experience to operate semi automatic milling and turning machine.

I will download the BobCad demo version.

Thanks !
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 From:  Brian (BWTR)
2349.11 In reply to 2349.10 
A side track---sorry!

"Akela" has some fun with memories.
(Probably not as mechaniclly sound as it looks though--just a quick play)

Brian
Attachments:

Image Attachments:
Size: 72 KB, Downloaded: 32 times, Dimensions: 800x500px
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 From:  Colin
2349.12 In reply to 2349.5 
Hi Paul,

I'm now a retired (eyesight is now shot) Jeweller mostly doing CAD/CAM work for other Jewellers.
Last year I had to do a big Belt Buckle for one of the Motorcycle Clubs over here.
So I did all of the designing for it only using MoI.

While in the process of doing the Buckle, I had to do a couple of prototype bases...that were consequently rejected...
So waste not, want not...here's a Buckle Base...if it's of use then that's great!!

Just so you know this Buckle was designed to be milled on both sides, so it's a bit more involved than what you were previously talking about.
This is why the pin is designed as a straight taper...so it could be milled & then bent to shape after it was all finished.

BTW, I ended up milling the finished Buckle design in wax on my Roland MDX-15 mill...
...the finished wax was cast in metal, cleaned up, rubber moulded & last I heard there was five being made in Bronze.

regards Colin


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 From:  ViperTX
2349.13 In reply to 2349.12 
BurrMan,

I've never used a CAM program, so all help is appreciated.

I was thinking of starting with LazyCAM as it is included with MACH3 which I'm using to control the X3 CNC mill that I just completed. I checked LazyCAM and they support only round and rectangular pocketing, their wasn't any mention of islands. I hear the terms pocketing and islands on CNCzone.com and know what they are.

I'm not sure what other inexpensive CAM programs are available.

Paul


Colin,

Thank you the belt buckle info. Since I'm new at this I was only going to mill one side of the buckle, use a press to dome the belt buckle and do a post operation to add the pin. I like the idea of the integrated belt loop, I was thinking of using one that I could solder to the back of the belt buckle.

I had thought of using wax models, but since I live in an apartment....casting was out of the question.

The set of buckles that I plan on doing will be machined from brass.

You belong to a jewelery design site, I don't recall which one, but that's how I ended up at MOI.

All my past jewelery experience has been using lost-wax casting and fabrication from sheet, etc.

Paul

I have stock of brass, cast aluminum and machineable wax.

Thanks to everyone!
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 From:  BurrMan
2349.14 In reply to 2349.13 
Hi Paul,
>>>> was thinking of starting with LazyCAM as it is included with MACH3 which I'm using to control the X3 CNC mill that I just completed. I checked LazyCAM and they support only round and rectangular pocketing, their wasn't any mention of islands. I hear the terms pocketing and islands on CNCzone.com and know what they are.>>>>

I noticed in lazy cam in the pocket menu there is a checkmark to "create islands". If you have a circle and put a circle inside of it, then your software should be able to designate that as an "Island". Basically means "dont cut this". So in your model I posted a picture earlier of, The inner circle I told to be a pocket and the "GOT" letters I told to be Islands and it cut around them.

Basically the more you pay for your software the more features you'll get. So like doing a basic pocket with some islands with lazycam, its a one shot deal, with little control of the toolpath and how/where it goes. Higher end stuff can allow you to set different heights for different islands and choose different types of entry for the toolpath and control which way it goes.

Lazycam will be a nice free start. after that I'd find some inexpensive stuff to move up to first until you know more of exactly what you need. The higher end stuff gets expensive and no need to pay for features you just dont need.
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 From:  BurrMan
2349.15 In reply to 2349.14 
Oh Yeah,
If you want to practice doing 3d toolpaths also, you could go to mecsoft.com who make visualmill and look for the link to "FreeMill". It will do 3dm files and has a simple wizard driven interface thats a great place to start and generate code to send to your machine. It may be a little buggy as it is a very simple version so if you dont set things up right it crashes. (At least for me) but that is also a great learning tool.

They also have some higher end stuff to move to later. I havnt used it but they have been around they even have a rhino plugin for cam.
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