How big are the cut-offs? Is there an opportunity to use them for smaller CNC parts? A shop I worked in had a CNC machine that could handle up to 5′ by 10′ sheets. If a program called for a small plywood or hardwood part, the operator would attach it to a spoil board large enough to cover a segment of the vacuum system, set the 0,0 point and press ‘Go’.
Bill Arnold – Custom Woodcrafting
Food for Thought: The Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
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Thanks for the reply. The situation is that the sheets are optimised in an American CAD package called cabinet vision. If, say, 2/3 of an 8 x 4 is used in a job the waste is stacked to one side. Next time we optimise a job the programme calls for a full sheet and so repeats the cycle. The operator's argument, and this hurts this Scotsman, is that it is cheaper to use a new sheet than sort through the off cuts and size them on a panel saw. At £6 ($10 ??) a sheet I can see his point.
We did a set of wardrobes and ended up with 36 strips of 18mm oak veneered mdf 12" wide with nowhere to go. We cut approx 80 -100 sheets a week and are reluctant to waste so much.Cabinet vision has a facility to fill up a sheet with "overs" ie, bits we design and fill the sheet to be cut during the normal cutting operation. I am sure I have seen plans for slot together stools somewhere. We could design our own but it would be good to get some ideas first. We use 1/4",1/2" 3/4" veneered and plain mdf as well as veneered block board. We make high end kitchen cabinets and have the associated off cuts.
If we could add extra parts to the optimised sheets it would save a huge amount of time and we could then build stocks of the completed items for future sale.
Many thanks,
Callum
Is the sheet size merely a default setting in the software that can be changed? For example, if you have 1' x 8' offcuts, can you tell the software that's what your sheet size is, so it can get as many parts from those sheets until they are used up?
We can tell the machine we have another sheet available, as you suggest, but we very rarely have such a large number of off cuts the same size. That was a one-off, most bits are approx 2' x 2' ish. It depends on how the machine optimises the sheet. I am going to look for slot together furniture in books, I am sure I saw something in a book somewhere.
Thanks
Callum,
I thought I saw an article in Wood Mag. a few years ago for making Christmas figures that had the kind od joinery your mentioning. As I remember, raindeer, sligh, etc. parts were shaped out and then slid (slotted) together and placed outside....easy to assemble, easy to store.
Edited 9/21/2004 7:06 am ET by BG
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