Mantel Clock

[Dave506]

Hi Everyone,

I made one of the newest projects, the Mantel Clock. Made it out of solid oak. Stained in Golden Oak and some gel stain to highlight the accents of the carvings. Then applied finish with a stain polyurethane. I haven't carving much in oak. Really carves very well!!! I'll have to start working with Oak more often. Didn't take all that long to complete. Micheal was spot on when designing this. Went together with very little to no sanding.

Thanks Micheal. Nice project and fun to do!!!

Dave

[mtylerfl]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for posting your Mantle Clock project photos! It's great to know you are having as much fun as I am!

[flatheadyoungin]

Michael,

Where are you getting your 1/16" 7 Deg tapered ball nose bits? Thanks!

[mtylerfl]

Michael,

Where are you getting your 1/16" 7 Deg tapered ball nose bits? Thanks!

I buy them from CarveWright.co and also precisebits.com

[flatheadyoungin]

Thanks!

[flatheadyoungin]

That's a great looking clock. Before we finished our Joe's build, I saw that clock and knew I wanted to make one. Because I didn't know how to design anything cool in aspire yet, the clock was probably the first real project we made. Thanks for sharing your clock.

[Dave506]

I use precisebits.com for all of my caving bits. I get the coated ones. Well worth the extra cost. Last much longer.

Thanks for the comments

Dave

[flatheadyoungin]

What is a good step-over rate cutting this clock with a 1/16" tapered ball nose bit? Last time I got lines real badly. My 1/8" bit actually did a much better job so I must have got something off and step-over is the only thing I think I'm missing.

Oh, and about how long is your finish pass taking to complete? With my 1/8 it took about 3 hours, I just recalculated and it's 10hrs!


Thanks!

[mtylerfl]

What is a good step-over rate cutting this clock with a 1/16" tapered ball nose bit? Last time I got lines real badly. My 1/8" bit actually did a much better job so I must have got something off and step-over is the only thing I think I'm missing.

Oh, and about how long is your finish pass taking to complete? With my 1/8 it took about 3 hours, I just recalculated and it's 10hrs!


Thanks!

Hello,

I don't always keep track of actual machining time, but in this case, I did.

Vectric_Mantle_Clock_ARCHES: 9 min.
Vectric_Mantle_Clock_FRONT: 5 hrs. 32 min.
Vectric_Mantle_Clock_PANELS: 20 min.

The files I created for the project already have the stepover percentages set just as I used for creating the sample. So, you'll see the front panel carving has a 39% stepover for the Roughing Toolpath (using a Down-Cut 0.25" EM @ 2 inches per second Feed Rate and 1 inch per second Plunge Rate) and 8% stepover for the Finish Pass (using a 0.0625" Tapered BN @ 3 inches per second Feed Rate and 2 inches per second Plunge Rate).

I prefer a 6% stepover for Finish Toolpaths, but often compromise and use 8% to save time. I find anything over 8% leaves more undesirable visible lines than lower settings and requires a little more sanding. The choice is...spend more time carving at the start or spend more time sanding at the end.

The Scale Factor I set for the project was 1.8, which yielded a reasonably close time estimate for the ARCHES and PANELS files. However, that Scale Factor was too low for the FRONT file. A more accurate Scale Factor time estimate for that particular file would have been 2.5 (time estimate 5:33 compared to the actual time of 5:32). My Rapid Rate setting is 100 inches per second.

I do not know how you are reaching a 10 hour estimate unless your Scale Factor and/or Rapid Rate is very far off, or the bit settings are incorrect. Double check those and see if you need to adjust accordingly. The settings in the original files are a good start, but you can tweak if necessary for your own machine and material.

I hope this is helpful.

[flatheadyoungin]

Yes, excellent info! Thanks for taking the time and being detailed.

I just fired it up and again and came back over to check the thread. It's currently running the raster with the grain (I think this may have hurt it too), 1/8" ball nose (I know it calls for 1/16" but I ran it twice with a 1/16 and neither came out good, once I keep experimenting I'll go to the 1/16), running 50ipm, 10% step-over.

I deleted all my files for the mantle clock a little just before I fired up the machine and dloaded a fresh set- thinking, like you said, I've goofed up some of your settings. I think, however, Aspire retained my goofy settings. Once this one runs for a little bit and I can see what it's doing. Then, I'll get a fresh new board and run it with your settings and a 1/16" TBN.

That makes sense, higher rapids and less % step-over for a better finish. Ok. The 9-10 hour was 8% step-over and 50ipm.

Sorry to hijack this thread. And, I'm sure I'm making this way more difficult than it should be. Thanks for being patient with the newbies.

side note: My grandfather passed away about 3 years ago. He loved being in the woods and squirrel hunting. In his back yard they had some huge, old growth oak trees. In his last year of life, some straight-line winds took the biggest one down. This was a huge and majestic tree. It broke off from being hollow about 10' up the trunk. Even though he was sick, he climbed up the leaning tree towards the 10' high trunk. I took his photo. Well, we sawed up the tree into rough lumber. It has been drying for a year, now. I'm wanting to make grandma one of your clocks to give to her at Christtmas (I make make one for each of the 5 children, too). So, this is my motivation to keep pushing through this learning curve and get it right. Thanks, again, for the plans and taking time to walk me through some of it.

[flatheadyoungin]

Was still getting lines...

Swaped out to a 1/16" TBN, 70ipm, 8% step-over.....we'll see what this produces after it has time to run for a while.

I'm assuming rapids and inches per minute are the same thing. For the tool settings, I have it set to 50ipm. In Mach3, I bump it up to 70ipm and it still seems to be smooth.

we'll see....

[mtylerfl]

Was still getting lines...

Swaped out to a 1/16" TBN, 70ipm, 8% step-over.....we'll see what this produces after it has time to run for a while.

I'm assuming rapids and inches per minute are the same thing. For the tool settings, I have it set to 50ipm. In Mach3, I bump it up to 70ipm and it still seems to be smooth.

we'll see....

I hope everything is carving out alright for you. Give us an update when you have a chance.

The Rapid Rate I referred to earlier is a machine setting which determines how fast your spindle head (or router) moves rapidly from one location to another. My machine (ShopBot Buddy) is set at 100 ips (inches per second) for Rapid Moves.

For the Time Estimate to approach any kind of accuracy, the Rapid Rate in the Time Estimate menu must be set the same as the machine itself. The Rapid Rate setting in the Time Estimate menu does NOT affect actual rapid moves (i.e., no data sent to the machine). It is a setting simply for Time Estimate purposes. There are OTHER Rapid settings elsewhere in the software that DO affect machine movement speed, but that's another topic.

By the way, I prefer ips settings (inches per second) rather than ipm settings (inches per minute) No right or wrong here, just a personal preference is all.

[Mike-S]

My machine (ShopBot Buddy) is set at 100 ips (inches per second) for Rapid Moves.

W O W !

[mtylerfl]

My machine (ShopBot Buddy) is set at 100 ips (inches per second) for Rapid Moves.

W O W !

Wow, is RIGHT. My figures are WRONG. Now I need to go check...

[mtylerfl]

Checked the machine. Jog Speed (Rapid Rate) was actually set at 12 ips, NOT 100 ips (which is impossible for the machine to move that fast - don't know why I thought I had it set at 100 ips in the first place).

So, to add more to my own confusion, I experimented with setting the software Rapid Rate setting in the Time Estimate menu from 100 ips to 12 ips. Interestingly, there was very little change in the time estimate. I tried various values and still no significant change. The only setting that makes a significant time estimate change is the Scale Factor, whilst in that menu. If I change the Rapid Rate to 12 inches per minute, I again see a slight change in the time estimate, but not much.

It is clear to me that I have an opportunity to learn something about this. I'm at a loss as to why the Rapid Rate change from 100 ips to 12 ips doesn't make any significant difference (as far as time estimate). I was always under the impression the Rapid Rate setting had to be the same as the machine setting. Apparently, I was wrong. Hopefully, someone can shed some light on my erroneous reasoning.

I apologize for thoroughly hijacking the OP's thread so severely! This topic could be moved to a new thread, for sure.