It's the Little Things

July 14, 2020CNC, Workshop & SafetyDavid WertheimerComment

A pandemic-related slowdown in work and far-more-limited social and summer travel plans does not mean wasted time. New shelves in tight spaces; a repaired and improved dust collection system; more convenient electrical switches; and more. I share a few simple workshop improvements I’ve been able to make, that may inspire you to also do some cleanup.

Fabricating Custom Treads for a Circular Staircase

July 1, 2020CNC, How To & CalculatorsDavid Wertheimer2 Comments

Fabricating custom treads for a circular staircase is largely a story of jigs, made and remade until they’re just right. I outline the steps - and missteps - I took along the way of bringing this nearly year-long vision to fruition.

Lasers vs. CNC?

February 3, 2020CNCDavid Wertheimer22 Comments

Learn how to distinguish between laser cutting or engraving vs. CNC cutting or engraving. What materials lend themselves more to one or the other, and why would an artist choose one approach over the other?

5 Axis CNC Milling: It's all in the Software

October 11, 2019CNCDavid Wertheimer5 Comments

After carving out the bodies for many clocks and a number of coasters, I’m looking forward to adding a few small but unique architectural models to my product catalog, but those will be much easier with a 5-axis CNC. Continuing my earlier exploration to upgrade my CNC, an often-overlooked component is the control software; some software options cost nearly as much as a fancy new machine! I’ll share a few of the options I’ve explored for continuous vs. 3+2 (positional / indexing) milling; though there are a few dead ends if I want to keep it affordable, there’s at least one promising path forward that I’ll describe and will be pursuing in the coming months.

Choosing an Engraving Bit

July 23, 2019How To & Calculators, CNCDavid Wertheimer6 Comments

So many engraving bits to choose from; which is the right one to use? Did you ever expect to apply that high school trigonometry for engraving? In this post, we go through the considerations in selecting the size and angle of engraving bit based on the width of the characters and the thickness of the stock.

Unexpected Complexities of Swearing in Braille

July 9, 2019CNC, Products & ShowsDavid Wertheimer1 Comment

Carving Braille into a simple wood coaster introduced a lot more design and usability complexity than I initially expected; this post shares a few of the design considerations, and the implications of those issues on machining time.