[woodman12]

Digitized the diagram and cut this stool on the CNC
interesting part is the fact the stool has no glue or
screws it just fits like dovetail jointery and will not come
apart. its built from 3/4 maple plywood

stool draw and assemble

 

[JOAT]

How long did it take to digitize it? And how long did it take to cut it out?

 

[woodman12]

the tracing or digitizing took about 30 min, the cnc cut was about 1.5 hrs.
the drawing is easy
I don't push my cnc speed, not in a hurry

 

[JOAT]

the tracing or digitizing took about 30 min, the cnc cut was about 1.5 hrs.
the drawing is easy
I don't push my cnc speed, not in a hurry

Should have rephrased my question. So, then the four separate patterns took about 30 minutes for all four?

And the cutting out took about and hour and a half for all of the separate parts? So cutting out the parts averaged about 12 minutes each.

How long does it take to set up each part for cutting? That is putting the wood in place on the table, and holding it down?

I take it someone else actually designed the stool and plans then, correct?

 

[JOAT]

I got to thinking about that stool, and now think I would like to make a couple. NOT for sitting on tho, rather as tool stands. Awhile back I made a shop chair. Winged it. Came out nice, strong, sturdy, and like sitting on a rock. So after a couple of days of that, cut the back off, and wound up with a very nice little work bench. I don't want to make another chair, don't know if I could anyway, winged the one I made. But I think it would be interesting making a couple of those for shop stands. For sitting now have a very nice used office chair, has casters, can raise or lower it, has arms, the back tilts back, and nice and soft. Actually it looks almost new, with the exception of a small stain. I'm thinking the previous owner just got rid of it because of the stain, and I got it for $7.

 

[woodman12]

it took 30 min or less to draw it all out full sized, then I screwed a 4x8 sheet of oak plywood on the cnc table, nested the parts and cut it all out 1.5 hrs
The diagram was provided
Creating the tool paths might have been 40 minutes, including the nesting
I watch the cut and place extra wood screws to hold the sheet and sometimes I use wood hold downs which I make sort of a offset holder and these are wood
which if you hit it is does no harm. Carbide bits don't like to hit a wood screw

 

[JOAT]

it took 30 min or less to draw it all out full sized, then I screwed a 4x8 sheet of oak plywood on the cnc table, nested the parts and cut it all out 1.5 hrs
The diagram was provided
Creating the tool paths might have been 40 minutes, including the nesting

I used to think I had the time it took to do work. Then I found a $5 stopwatch in WallyWorld. Was I ever surprised. Found out that a job I had thought took about 5 minutes might actually take up to 15, depending on the job, and on a few I had thought took under 10 minutes, perhaps took 30. Well worth the shock tho, because I reviewed what I was doing, and how, and I cut the time to do different jobs so was able to actually come fairly close to the time I had thought I was taking before. One or two even came down to, or even a tad less than I thought the job was taking. Wouldn't doubt you take longer than you think also.

 

[woodman12]

no I try and post my time , when I worked I was hourly paid and since I have retired I still keep track of my time as the cnc , laser,and 3d printer all have different rates
that are charged.
So NO I keep track of time maybe not with a stopwatch but a log sheet on each project

 

[4DThinker]

While I respect the value of having a digitizer to input complex shapes that you have a drawing of, this little stool is so simple that taking diameters and heights/widths of the parts with a tape measure or ruler would have been all that was needed to recreate the drawings in your software. Knowing the drawing tools you could likely recreate it in less time than you spent digitizing it. I spent just 5 minutes in Aspire to draw up the 3 circular parts in Aspire, using a tape measure and guessing the slots were 3/4" wide. A screen grab let me measure everything else on those parts off my PC screen. Tell me the height of the stool and width of the legs at the bottom and I can draw up the legs.

All the slots can be quickly re-done if the plywood thickness changes.

This reminds me of CNC requests I often get from my students. The parts they need are simple shapes (rectangles usually) that can be much quicker cut using other shop tools. I remind them of those machines and point them in the general direction of them. When our digital technology starts taking on jobs that are more efficiently done other ways, it may be time to step away from the digital.