An Octagon Box

[jteneyck]

I made this octagon box just for fun.  



I first was going to make it round on both the inside and out and with a threaded top, but after I saw how nice my miters were I decided to leave the outside as an octagon.  For the curious, I cut the miters on my CMS using an added 90 deg fence to assure the piece were plumb against the fence, only to find that the 22.5 deg angle was off by a fraction of a degree.  I had to disengage the preset 22.5 deg detent and tweak the angle some unknown amount until the mating pieces formed a perfect 45 degrees.  

I used my CNC to cut the ID.  At 3" thick, this was about the maximum I could put under Z-axis with a bit long enough to reach at least 1-1/2" deep.  The ID is cut just over halfway, then the box is flipped over and the other side is cut, as well as the rabbett on the bottom to receive the bottom panel.  What looks like two layers when you look inside the box is actually how the grain responded from the bit cutting in opposite directions.  That would disappear if I had been motivated enough to sand it all out, but I wasn't. 



The octagon shape pretty much nixed the idea of a threaded top.  There's just no way that the top would line up with the base when screwed on.  I could have used a round top to overcome that, but that didn't seem too appealing, so I just made a top with a shoulder on the bottom that fits into the ID of the base.  

The dome shape of the top is easy to do with a piece of clip art from the VCarve Pro software I have, as were the flutes that lay onto the dome.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, probably gift it, but it was a fun project to make. 

John

[5thumbs]

Well done! Love the carving, I'm just starting to learn carving, where did you get the Carve Pro software?.

[EightFingers]

Well done! Love the carving, I'm just starting to learn carving, where did you get the Carve Pro software?.

Vectric

[Barry Johnson]

Looks great.  I keep thinking about getting a cnc, would open another angle to what I could do in shop.  Aka as excuse for new tool.

[jteneyck]

Looks great.  I keep thinking about getting a cnc, would open another angle to what I could do in shop.  Aka as excuse for new tool.

You'll get no argument from me.  Hobby level CNC's are getting larger, if that's important to you, higher performance, and lower cost as time passes.  I have a OneFinity.  It's about 2-1/2 years old now.  Since I bought it, the price has come down by around 1/3, and they have added a 4th axis and automatic tool changer options, as well.  The financial barrier is not nearly as large as it used to be.  At about $4K when I bought it, it remains the most expensive machine in my shop full of mostly used machines, however.  

Cost aside, I bought a CNC mostly to keep my mind occupied, and it definitely has met that objective.  Just being able to make new things has given me reason to go down into my shop.  Learning the software (which never really ends if you keep trying new things) was another thing that has kept my brain active and engaged.  My goal with it was never to make money with it (I have, actually, but nowhere near enough to break even yet.), nor to just make 3D art objects (though I have, as well, like this box), but to incorporate it as another machine in my furniture/cabinet making.  In that regard, it has opened up a whole new way of making things, especially where I need to make multiples or where really high precision is needed.  It excels at those tasks.  I've taken on a few pieces of knock down furniture where dozens of accurate holes are needed for people hundreds of miles away that I never would have considered before. 

Making stuff on a CNC often involves a whole new way of thinking compared to conventional woodworking.  The machine is doing many of the things we did manually, like making holes, dados, rabbets, and cutting out parts, but the way you go about it often is quite different.  It can be a little frustrating in the beginning until you learn how to think in a way that fits with how the machine works, but that's all part of the learning process that keeps your brain engaged, too.  

I'm glad I decided to buy one.   

John

[imakesawdust]

Well done. Longtime CNC user, since 2005. Carve Pro is an amazing piece of software at a very reasonable price. Your comments about the evolving world of hobby CNC machines is spot on. They are getting cheaper, faster and bigger. 4 X 4 AltMill is about $3,500. Looking forward to your next creative endeavor.