Weekdays for Tormach CNC machine and SprutCAM X users

Amidst the whirlwind of projects that inundate our users’ workshops, there’s one exception that never fails to maintain clarity and efficiency: roguetoolpath. With his Tormach PC NC 1100 CNC machine tirelessly humming away and SprutCAM X ever at the helm, chaos is simply not on the agenda.

In his own words:

Wanted to share some recent shop fun!

First Picture, I Designed and fabricated a dozen different spoil board sizes for the clock project I’m working on! A couple of these will become dedicated fixtures with added locating features and the rest were setup complete with extra g-code files to quickly resurface as required. Hoping when I get the project ready, I won’t have to stop and build to many fixtures.

Next picture is recent project I finished. Using parametric cad. I designed 3 different sized small machinist screw support jacks with added storage rack. After review of this project I decided I needed to standardize my model-drawing – Cam – gcode- setup picture system. A simple project like this ballooned into over 160 cad, cam, g-code and setup picture files! This was basically a simple project with 3 different sizes of the same 2 parts with 2 storage racks and I ended up organizing 4 directories of files to run on 3 different machines “mill, lathe, router” to complete the project with revisions.

I have a number of complex projects like the clock design that have dozens of parts that will balloon into thousands of files to manage. I need to get control of this or it will turn into a mess with thousands of files to dig through and manage to find and finish the parts.

Last Picture is REV1 of yet another tool designed and added to my endless fab que to be done between all the other stuff I work on. It is a simple tap or drill guide block with sized inserts that can be changed or custom made to size as required. And of course a small storage box to keep it all organized. Should be a useful tool to have on the bench or stored and ready for hand work.

What about your working process? Share your stories and projects in social media and don’t forget to tag #sprutcam