Tricks and Tips for Multicam Users

[bertberaht]

Chis Ghaly (@cghaly) aka “The Teacher” and I have been informally discussing some variation of “Stump the Multicam Teacher and the Multicam SIG Leader” and have ideas ranging from a panel discussion to picking a day to set up “office hours” and invite users to drop by with questions and puzzles encountered in their projects. There are likely dozens of ways to approach such an effort, but first:

1. Would you like to see something like this done?
2. Would you personally like to attend or be involved?
3. What format(s) would you think might be most effective for DMS users.

Our path forward will be guided by response … which is barely disguised code to say “feedback is wanted and necessary or this ain’t happening!”

Bert Rabbe
Multicam SIG Leader

[coffeebean]

1. Yes
2. Yes, but not on a Thursday.
3. Unsure

[tomthm]

I don’t do many projects, but attend something like this, if only to hear what projects are happening and learn from them.

[Tres0422]

1. Yes
2. Definitly NOT on thursdays
3. Setting up and using 2 profiles for fusion 360…lots of us use it and want more confidence with it on the multicam…someone looking over our shoulder…

[gsommers]

I love the idea, but would prefer the results shared generally. If an in person office hours approach is done, a summary of issues / responses hopefully would be made available. Figuring out how to achieve desired outcomes has been my favorite part of working with the Multicam.

[Tres0422]

I can totally dig that. Publish a file and gcode…

For me Thursdays are out because for us non-custodial parents that’s our weeknight with our kiddos.

[HankCowdog]

Here’s a first “stumper/tip” question for you:

I would like to explore using a 60 degree v-bit to carve a poem onto a plank of wood. Assuming maple or cherry is used, what is the smallest font size I could reasonably expect to be legible?

This will factor into the size of wood needed and the overall ungainliness of the 24 line poem.

[bertberaht]

Good question and the answer is not independent of the font used. Some carve well at a small size and some do not. I mocked up a 20 line poem on a 8"x10" simulated cherry. Used Lucinda Calligraphy font
Text Height set at 0.25"
That is height of tallest capitalized letter. A lowercase “e” is about 0.16" tall.
Doubt you would want to go much smaller.

The lettering will typically show up a bit better once you put a finish on it.

[bbchops]

I would definitely be interested! And for much the same reasons as @tomthm, except without the “no Thursday” limitation.

I’ve attached some examples of patterns cut into birch plywood. How is it done?

[bertberaht]

Remembered I had a photo of a plaque I did in 2014 that might be similar to your project.

[bertberaht]

Post immediately preceding this was supposed to be to @HankCowdog.
Hit the wrong “reply” button.

[bertberaht]

I can answer part of this … the easy part. Once you have a 3D model of something like this, convert it to gcode, the cutting is pretty easy.

This is not nearly as large an image, but requires similar cutting strategies:

Just have to play around with bit choices to get the correct small details. Probably more than one bit with larger bits used to rough out the bulk of the shape and then either round nose or V-bits or some of both to nip and tuck to the extent the model requires.

The harder part is getting the pattern, especially if you design it from scratch. At DMS, I gather many use Fusion 360 for such tasks. I know @fedakkee has laser scanned faces and carved same on the Multicam. I’m not up to speed on Fusion 360, but you should be able to find Makers who can help. Maybe @cghaly can suggest someone.

The other hard part is sanding!!

[bertberaht]

Just adding a status update on this offer …
Had very low response, so this isn’t happening as an event. Will work with Makers one on one as situations arise. But since we now see that only about 10% on Makers even log in to Talk, could it be the question didn’t get to the audience?

There will soon be a monitor dedicated to Public Service type notices for the Multicam. That and a clipboard might be more effective way to gauge interest.

[jast]

could it be the question didn’t get to the audience?

It would seem the only sure-fire way to “reach your audience” is to start some malicious rumor, preferably by whispering to someone in the Galley, that “blah blah” happened and as a result “x, y, AND z are soon to be removed from the space” or other “yeah buddy, this means YOU will no longer have access to cool thingies you like”… And then look horrified you told them, and pressure them into promising to NOT tell anyone else…
I’ve yet to successfully employ this in my favor, so I might have the recipe off slightly, but that’s the gist.

EDIT: forgot to put in there: pick your favorite scapegoat to blame for “removing thing you love from the space”. Someone has to take the blame, and it damn sure can’t be you.

[bertberaht]

Funny … in a scary sort of way!