Croc Box: Upcoming CNC Table Router & Laser Cutting Project
How do you make a wooden crocodile jaw hinge without using hardware? Well… you look to Jonathan’s really cool Front End Loader design (picture below)
Don’t quite understand the relationship? Take a look at the 3D assembly animation I made of his amazing model and focus on the axle in the first few seconds. WoodMarvels.com was the old name for CNCKing.com btw – I still love working with wood but wanted to expand beyond it.
His solution to my ongoing problem was so obvious that I never forgot it… how do you rotate a square peg in a round hole SMOOTHLY? Stick it inside of another round hole so there is surface contact all around. Genius!
Those clamps can’t be at a worse place but basically, the jaw of this upcoming CNC table router project works in exactly the same way but instead of proving smooth wheel rotation, it produces smooth jaw rotation! You can the small inner rounds on the bottom this picture.
You can see it very roughly at the hinge point (compare this picture and the previous one and it will be apparent). It works so wonderfully that I plan on using this for a lot more projects. This was made with my awesome ShopBot Desktop and I’m very surprised I’m still using the same original bit that I left on the machine over a year ago… expecting it to break anytime but so far so good!
This is the top part of a new laser project I’ve been working on (not CNC router friendly due to tolerances) that I hope to release sometime in September with some neat engravings if all goes according to plan but here’s a preview. The CNC table router version was made using 6mm thick plywood while the laser version is optimized for 4mm as I wanted it to fit in a 300mm cube footprint.
Now that Volume 4 is pretty much behind me, I’m doing all completely new things – this project isn’t over yet, I want to add a few 3D printed “accessories” to start getting into multi-CNC designs. Part of the fun of this stuff mixing and matching designs… this won’t be in my 4th volume but my 5th that I will start writing slowly very soon.
I build-up these volumes over the course of a year or two and when I have enough content, put it all together into a book release it… I hope to share a lot more on this blog but the book will go into far more depth for those that are interested… watch for it in 2015! Until then, you’ll have to just be satisfied with my 4th volume and the videos I’ll be producing between now and then – I got a whiteboard to help explain these concepts further as well.