Absolute repeatable positioning

[Lenny Stahl]

Hi guys
I'm wondering if anyone has an idea for a jig or a setup of some sort for absolute repositioning of material

The plan is for a nested base style setup that has double sided machining, start by planning the material to flat and pocketing a few counterbores on side A then flip the sheet and do the machining and profiling on side B which has to be within .005"-.008" of the counterbores cut earlier on side A


For flip ops on cabinet parts I use a fence against the pins on the machine but the pins have too much play in them for these parts, and with having to release the vacuum to flip the partial sheet, there is a possibility that the fence would move. Also the spoil board underneath isn't tight tight in its groove so it could move a little as well.

Is there a way I can find the corners of the sheet with the machine in teach mode maybe?

Right now I'm thinking of making a jig that references off of the x axis rail in both x and y that should be absolute in both directions.

Was also thinking maybe drill holes and insert dowel pins into the spoil board but there is play in that lip where the spoil board sits onto the gasket

I don't know at the moment any ideas would be appreciated.

Machine is a cs41 if that matters

I have made a few of these parts one at a time by just cutting the shape into a piece of mdf and machining one side, flipping it over and machining the other side but there are way too many pieces to do them one at a time

[Will Williamson]

We discussed this method 9 years go check it out viewtopic.php?p=74418#p74418

[Clint Buechlein]

Lenny,

Not sure if they are still there or not, but when the machine was new we installed aluminum brackets on the machine for the flip fence Will linked in his post. Originally we shipped an aluminum L with a black handle bolted to it for single part flip operations that would nestle into two of the brackets. Image attached with the brackets circled in red.

-Clint-

[Lenny Stahl]

Clint,
That is exactly what I was looking for, the aluminum brackets are missing but the fence with the black handle (that i couldn't figure out what was for) is still here, all I have to do is machine new stops and I should be in business thank you very much, I wish I would have posted sooner.

[Lenny Stahl]

Will,

Thanks for the reply as well but the method you are using is only as accurate as the pins and mine are pretty sloppy for this job, they are good enough for cabinet parts though and I do use it for cabinet parts.

[Will Williamson]

I do not use the pins, to locate my jig. when I make the jig using a dxf file I locate a 1/2 inch hole in the inside corner of the jig and and when the machine goes to drill the hole I stop the machine and use the X/Y location of that hole for my G902 location
I have a little more, going on there than, meets the eye.
I do not cut cabinets, I do not use control nesting, more than once a year.
when for what ever reason, I need to cut cabinets, I run a small 12 x12 12 cabinet and test my flip ops and all my tolerances
Also I am using a 5 x 10 machine so I locate my G902 6 inches away from my 0/0
I mostly use Aspire for my 2 sided machining and that is another story entirely

[Clint Buechlein]

Clint,
That is exactly what I was looking for, the aluminum brackets are missing but the fence with the black handle (that i couldn't figure out what was for) is still here, all I have to do is machine new stops and I should be in business thank you very much, I wish I would have posted sooner.

You're welcome. Just be careful when doing surfacing so the bit doesn't contact your aluminum pieces. You'll also want to get them bolted on, then do a skim pass on the wall to square them to the machine. Prior to that, make sure the gantry is square to the table so you don't make brackets that are square to an unsquare machine.

-Clint-

[Will Williamson]

Clint, That is why, someone probably, took them off.
It would suck, the way I load panels, pushing them on. from the end
As well as if, you were using a handling, board.
And when it come time to surface spoillboard
I almost never use pop up pins for same reason