CNC Chess Piece With Autodesk Fusion360
Introduction: CNC Chess Piece With Autodesk Fusion360
This project was inspired by the Advertisement-like video produced by Tormach, where the PCNC770 Lathe and Rapidturn lathe attachment are used to produce a rook. The impressive cinematics and machining shots in this video left me thinking, "how hard can it be?"
I'm fortunate enough to have access to Tormach 770M mill with a Rapidturn lathe, so that's what I used for this. most of my instructions should be similar for the 15L Slant-pro lathe or any other Tormach lathes.
This was quite a rewarding experience as it was both my first CNC Lathe cut, and the first lathe cut on my Tormach 770M after countless hours of setup and learning.
Supplies
Tormach 770M with Rapidturn lathe and appropriate cutting tools
Fusion360
Stock steel rod, I used 25mm
Step 1: Step 1: Modeling the Chess Piece
I started this project off in Fusion360, my chosen CAD package. I chose this because this is what I was taught to use, and it just happens to be perfect for this project, thanks to the integrated CAM support within the program.
the real first step was some rough sketches on paper, to get an idea of how I wanted these pieces to look. My final decision was to start off with the pawn as this was the sketch I was most pleased with. If you're following along planning to make this, I haven't included my sketches as this is less of a technical part and is more about how you want your pieces to look.
the next step was to draw the bounding box for the limit of the size, this is important and it will help ensure you can actually fit the solid inside the stock you have. In my case, I have a 90mm Bar of 25mm diameter steel. based on the rough ratio from my sketch, I decided to make my piece 36mm tall. As I'm going to use a revolved profile to produce the solid, ill make my bounding box 36x12.5mm. 737
this gives you an area to limit your sketch to.
After this, it was time to used the line tool and fit point spline tool to produce half the profile of the chess piece. this is important because we will be revolving about the central axis of the sketch to create a solid. Although I didn't do this, one option would be to add an image of your paper sketch and follow it with the spline tool. Once I was happy with how the sketch looked, I added a relief taper on the base to reduce the cutter load in the machining stage, this is because there was a large difference in the diameter of the base of my piece in comparison to the diameter of the stock.
once finished the taper and sketch, revolved it. I did this by selecting the centerline on the left side of my bounding box to be the revolving axis and revolving it 360 degrees to create the piece.
It is important to consider the shape of your insert when designing, Eg, a 55-degree insert will not be able to cut a 10-degree bend or corner, your design may need to be altered.
Step 2: Step 2: CAM Set-Up
Now that we have a solid, we can begin to generate the tool paths. I did this in the built-in CAM environment within fusion360. For Tormach lathes, the Z-axis is the rotational axis, e.g the axis that runs through the center of the stock, and the X-axis is the Up/down the axis of the tool post. Not all lathes are the same so this is something to keep in mind during the setup process.
I began this stage by creating a new setup in the top menu and working my way through the boxes as shown below. This can also be seen when the attached example fusion file is opened in the manufacturing environment.
Operation: Turning or Mill turning
spindle: Primary spindle
The next set of inputs will be specific to your machine, these are the coordinates that the machine will read.
Orientation: Z-axis select (rail on the base of the chess piece)
Z-axis pointing out of the top of the chess piece
Origin: stock front
Safe Z: 5mm
Model: body selected
Spun profile: checked
chuck: stock back
Stock
the next bit is the stock setup, this will be based on the material you have and the scale of your piece but its fairly self-explanatory.
Model position: offset from the front
and that's the end of the setup!
Step 3: Step 3: Roughing Tool Path Generation
In this section, I will be focusing on the first of two main operations for this project, roughing. 438