Looking for CNC project advice

I have a leather tool caddy I have had 3D printed and would like to explore having them made out of wood or possibly aluminum. The object is 10.4" in diameter and 4.1" high.

The problem I have had with just putting this on a wood lathe and drilling holes in the top is the angle of the holes. The ring with the holes is at a 15 degree angle as are all the slots, not to mention the amount of them.

Is this doable with the tools in the Machine shop? If so, which ones? I am not trained but will gladly put in the work to get trained. Is their a better way to do this I am not thinking?

Consider 3 parts. 2 disc sheets drilled flat. Then, a form to bend them, or hammer them. Finally, a cylinder to join.

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That’s at least a $300 billet of aluminum… sheet metal work like what Doug suggested is the way to go. Or you can make the basic shape in wood with lathe, 3d print a jig to get the angles right, and drill the holes w/hand drill.

I was kinda wondering about the cost. I was also thinking the weight would be substantial. I like the idea of 3D printing a jig. Thanks!

Fun part, and in general yeah you can do it with the manual tools in the machine shop (depending on the exact sizes…), but definitely an expensive piece unless you can find a nice drop sitting around for cheap.

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You could plasma cut & then roll it on the slip roll. It would be some work & extermination to do. Also you would have to do 2 halves to make a singular upper. Another option is to bump bend it in the press brake attachment, again in two separate halves.

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You can always melt down aluminum cans and cast it. :slight_smile:

That sounds like fun. I’m not sure how I would get a mold of it.

Sooo… breaking this down to a simple geometry problem:
You have a cylinder w/ a 15 degree (15*) cone going in the bottom and out the top.
The holes/slots you want to drill are perpendicular to the 15* cone surfaces.
Make the cylinder w/ cone surfaces out of a chunk of wood (or plastic?).
Using the Bridgeport - create a jig to hold cylinder at 15*.
Make jig so that cylinder can be rotated.
There’s probably a way to use one of the round tables and/or the indexer to do this.
This will put the top cone surface perpendicular to the spindle
You can now drill your slots.

Another possibility is to think of the end product in terms of “shells”.
Lay out flat and slice.
This will give you multiple identical pieces that can be cut from acrylic (or?) on the laser (or?).
Glue up and done.

Day 5 in exile…

That’s very interesting. I could execute against the acrylic/laser idea much quicker. Looks like I have my isolation project this week. Come up with a Laser cutting scheme.

It’s basically a geometry problem. Break it down into manageable parts.
Last time I was in Fusion 360 it was a heck of review.
Angles, rotations, symmetry, and…omg…trig.
All that fun stuff learned a long time ago and thought to be never needed.

Do keep us up to date on how your project progresses.

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Could do the top on an English wheel

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