My new CNC knife project

BlueBird

BlueBird

Member
Hi guys, still working on prototype, nothing is finish, but i will start by showing you some pictures first.


I start making hole in the blank for the scale, lanyard hole, and holes for the fixturing, so i can put the blank in my fixturing pallet i made to mill the contouring, bevel, engraving and chamfering:
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After that i can flip the knife and make the other side
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After that i put the knife in another fixture to cut the tab
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And i can start the finishing job, i made a roughly job here but again its just a prototype:
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My plan is to make the rough finishing work before heat treat.

Scales are designed but i need to make the fixturing before.(Burlap micarta)

Not sure about the sheath. I was thinking about kydex with some leather, need to check that. I desinged this knife to be a "not to small and comfy" EDC, so if you have idea, please let me know.

Need to work the jimping. May be i will make it by hand after the machining.

AEB-L, lenght of 6.57", 0.145" thick.

Feel free to tell what you think, thanks !!
 
That's slick - what type of CNC machine are you using? What software? Do you use carbide tools to cut the AEB-L?

I wish I was better with gcode, and had a bigger CNC other than the desktop I have
 
KenH said:
That's slick - what type of CNC machine are you using? What software? Do you use carbide tools to cut the AEB-L?

I wish I was better with gcode, and had a bigger CNC other than the desktop I have
Click to expand...
Hi !

My CNC is a Tormach 440. Pretty small and limited machine. 0.75HP and approx 10"x6" working area.
Not "expensive", but good little machine to start small run and learing. I made the stand and the enclosure by myself to save money.
To be honest, if you can afford a Tormach 770, go with it. The 440 was the most expensive machine i can get with bunch of tooling without getting with debt/loan. But considering the limitation, im happy with it. All the tooling all around the CNC is expensive. Good endmill, tool older, measuring tools, workholding solution, etc. I think its really important to have a good variety of cutting tool, for stainless, steel, aluminum, having proper workholding (fixture table, vises, mitee bite, blank pallet, stuff like that). With all this stuff on hand, when a think about a solution to make what i want, i can do it.

Yes, i use only carbide tools. No brainer, carbide is the way to go, in particular in stainless and tool steel. No real problem with HSS, but carbide is harder, tool life is better, and you get faster cutting data in general with carbide.

I use Fusion360 for CAD and CAM, basic version is free, lot of information online, great free tutorial on youtube, etc. I think Fusion360 is the good software to start.

To be honest, i don't know lot of thing about Gcode. Fusion360 and Pathpilot (CNC controller of Tormach) are not hard to learn. Anybody can do this with time.

The last 3 months was not easy for me, bouncing over learning, designing, making, and learning again and again, but i love that and with patience and hard work i think that can pay over time.

I have a past with CNC and Fusion360 so i didnt start from nothing but the biggest challenge for me was proper CAD design, and feed and speed to cut stainless. My background in CNC was on aluminum and wood only.

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Thank you for a nice write of your CNC setup. When I look at the price of $7K or so to start even with the 440, I think WOW!! that's a LOT of money. BUT - compared to a bass boat, motorcycle, or even playing golf it's not that bad. AND - 5 yr down the road that bass-boat/motorcycle isn't going to be worth anywhere near what was paid for it while the 440 would get most, if not all your money returned.

I've got a simple desktop CNC running LinuxCNC. I've not got involved in any 3D stuff yet, drawing mostly in a CAD package the converting the DXF file to gcode. I think your PathPilot is Tormach's frontend for LinuxCNC. I've heard they did a good job with the user interface.
 
KenH said:
Thank you for a nice write of your CNC setup. When I look at the price of $7K or so to start even with the 440, I think WOW!! that's a LOT of money. BUT - compared to a bass boat, motorcycle, or even playing golf it's not that bad. AND - 5 yr down the road that bass-boat/motorcycle isn't going to be worth anywhere near what was paid for it while the 440 would get most, if not all your money returned.

I've got a simple desktop CNC running LinuxCNC. I've not got involved in any 3D stuff yet, drawing mostly in a CAD package the converting the DXF file to gcode. I think your PathPilot is Tormach's frontend for LinuxCNC. I've heard they did a good job with the user interface.
Click to expand...

Yes exactly. If i don't make money with knife, i will make money with something else. Not really worried about that. My main goal is just to be capable of living making something a love to do..

You are right, Pathpilot is LinuxCNC
 
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