Routing a highboy gooseneck moulding on a CNC?

[Rob Floyd]

I've been following Dave Diaman's bonnet top highboy tutorial in the "Woodworking Projects" area. Man, his work and tutorial are excellent!!! I'd like to make a highboy someday. He makes it look easy.

Question: The gooseneck molding on the bonnet top requires many hours of tricky router work. If one knows the molding profile, would it be reasonably possible to model the structure in a 3d graphics program and rout in on a CNC machine??? Maybe someone has already done it.

Thanks

Rob

Remember our troops on this D Day anniversary!

[Nicholas Bukky]

High Rob,
Simply put yes this could be done on a cnc.

What a great tutorial he is doing!!

Best,
Nick

[Steve Godding]

We've done a molding sort of like that one using Aspire, so yes, it can be done on the CNC. It's still going to take hours, but at least it's the machine doing it, not you.

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

I make a lot of moulding using a 2D CAD program. I draw the profile, then draw all the toolpaths after figuring them out from the profile. By doing it this way, I can cut it about 5 times faster then using Aspire (or similar) with it's back and forth raster toolpath strategy.

[Keith Outten]

Go to Vectric's web site and view the video on the "Two Rail Sweep" feature in Aspire.
.

[Guy Mathews]

I make a lot of moulding using a 2D CAD program. I draw the profile, then draw all the toolpaths after figuring them out from the profile. By doing it this way, I can cut it about 5 times faster then using Aspire (or similar) with it's back and forth raster toolpath strategy.

I'm with Gerry on this one. Skip the 3D on this and go to router bit cabinet. Find all the bits that you would need to make the profile as close as possible or make your own profile using bits that you have available.

Using 2D Cad, draw the profile and run the toolpaths. If you have to add 3D into this, you can incorporate both the 2D and the 3D and still cut your times down from raster carving the entire piece. Additionally, the more you can use the router bits to simulate a shaper, the less sanding you will have when compared to raster carving unless you use a miniscule stepover. The upside to that is the machine does all the work. The downside is the machine does all the work and it takes a really long time. Routers bits and 2D vectors are the fastest solution for CNC.

This thread I started a while ago shows the end result of combining both 2D Vectors and a 3D model.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=126093

I will actually be doing some CAD tutorials on this using CAMsoft which will show the CAD and CAM process and posting them soon.

Guy

[Steve Godding]

Guy - really looking forward to your tutorial. I used Aspire because it got the job done and it was the hammer I had, but was not happy with the resulting sanding from the raster approach, and the many hours it took to cut. We tried using offset toolpaths in Aspire, which were supposed to follow the contour but got some really bad toolpaths that produced rough results.

Steve Godding