Multiblades.com UG Bracket and home made Kapex Wings

[Neathawk Designs]

After some searching, I didn't see a whole lot of info on the Multiblades.com UG Brackets for use with Home Made Kapex extensions.

I made a short video: Multiblades Kapex Extensions

The brackets seem to work quite well.  I had to add a shim to my 3/4" plywood to get the right thickness.  I made the wings to be compatible with Festool clamps - and they also act as a sacrificial board if making cuts on them.  They cheap ryobi stand seems to hold the wings up just fine. 

I made the wings on my CNC machine (Shop Bot).  This is kind of a learning experience to see how this works, so for now I used scrap plywood. 

I have photos of the brackets, but I'm having trouble getting them off my phone for some odd reason - so if I can get the technical issues sorted out, I will post photos later.

All in all, I'm pretty excited about the setup.  Ordering from Multiblades was great... they had the brackets to me in 2 days with only $1.50 shipping from California to Massachusetts.  I bought the UG Brackets because I figured in a year or so I will probably pick up the UG wings.

 

[jonny round boy]

Nice job. I liked your kapex stand too. Wish I had access to a CNC!

BTW, I just had to include this clip of a UK news/comedy show from sometime last year. Don't take offence, it's meant in good humour! [big grin]

Warning: contains the odd bit of mild swearing!

 

[Neathawk Designs]

Thanks!  Hmmm... Is my angle w rong in the video?  No offense taken. 

I'm looking forward to making a lot more cool things on the CNC for the work trailer.  The stand and saw are on the job right now and I'm really liking the setup so far.  I haven't had much to cut yet so I haven't had a chance to realize its full value. 

I'm thinking that I will probably get the standard UG wings some day, but I think this setup has a lot of value in it as far as clamping goes and having a sacrificial board to cut long pieces while on the job site... So I would probably keep this setup as well.

 

[Neathawk Designs]

Thought I'd add some photos of my setup in use.  So far I really like it quite a bit... I've used it for clamping stop blocks, as well as clamping pieces down so that I could make quick cuts with the jig saw.  They seem to offer plenty support, even with the cheap stand.  I suppose the only issue I run into is it only takes about 2 minutes for the extensions to be a convenient place to put your tools down (or whatever else you need to set down) - which means I'm constantly having to clear stuff off of it to make cuts.  I do have an MFT/3, but there just isn't that much room on this job site, so this works great.

 

[GPowers]

I Like all the wholes in the extensions for clamping

 

[Neathawk Designs]

The holes seem to be handy and I feel good knowing its OK if I accidentally cut it with the jig saw (or whatever other saw I'm using).  I don't think you can use the UG extensions in the same manner.

 

[overanalyze]

I love your design! It may or may not get copied. ..

 

[Neathawk Designs]

Thanks!  Because I'm still not sure what works best, the left and right extensions are both different sizes and designs.  In this small room I actually find it helpful, because I sometimes leave only the shorter but wider extension on.  I should also note, the little top that the saw sits on is really handy because you can set things on it... Like the angle finder or a vacuum brush, and unused clamps - or it can act as a mini MFT when the saw is not on it.  The saw only sits on the stand - it's not attached because I want to be able to easily remove it and take advantage of the rubber feet and make cuts on the floor when necessary.

The brackets will also allow to clamp a block on to act as a stop when repeat cutting short pieces.  You can clamp the block on as close to the blade as necessary.

If it were not such a pain to ship these, I would sell them because its all saved and ready to re-cut on the CNC.

So far, I find the only shortfall is that it doesn't all fit into a nice little package such as with the UG cart.  But I find the small added work space to be really helpful.

 

[duburban]

How many passes does it take your showbot to cut 3/4" ?

 

[Neathawk Designs]

How many passes does it take your showbot to cut 3/4" ?

There's a lot of factors that go into that... like material, bit size, shank size, length of cutter, rate of travel, RPM's of the bit, # of flutes... etc

For cutting this plywood using the bit that I was using, I think I can easily get it done with 2 passes - and probably could have done it in one.  I have only attempted a production run once or twice, and honestly can't remember what I attempted to do, but I usually will run an extra pass to be on the safe side.  I believe I tried running a .25" shank with a .25" cutter compression bit, which has a downcut on top, with an upcut on the bottom of the bit, which should give very little tearout on veneer plywood - I believe I tried it in 2 passes.  Most of our work is custom, so it doesn't really matter if it takes a bit longer to cut by running an extra pass.  Most of the work on the CNC is my wife making signs.

My wife using the equipment has been a blessing... AND it's also bad.  The good part is she doesn't have a heart attack when I bring home new Festool tools - the bad part is she often will claim them for herself!  We each now have our own CT extractor, but she has taken ownership of the MFT3, most of the clamps, and the 2 rotex sanders.  I kept my latest purchase a secret  - a Syslite - because I knew she would want it for painting... but awesomely enough - I won one for her on through the festool facebook trivia!

 

[duburban]

Whats the HP on that shopbot? (showboat, after autocorrect). I'm using a "EZrouter" with a 3.25hp porter cable router on the gantry. The guy that owns it is taking 1/2 diameter of the bit for cutting depth. I have me a feeling thats overly conservative and it means a compression bit would cut in up shear for the first few passes. I've been cutting apple ply on it and the veneer wants to tear out very easily.

 

[Neathawk Designs]

It's a 4 Horse Power spindle... which I believe is significantly more powerful than it's 4 horsepower router equivalent (but I don't think that matters at all in this case).  I think everything I've ever done on this machine could have been done with the same router that you mention.  I think the bigger concern is whether or not you lose a step because the bit can't cut fast enough for the feed rate that is specified in the cutting file.

Yeah - A compression bit would be cutting up if it only cut 1/8" in (I'm pretty sure it would anyway - I could run out to the shop and double check if you would like).  I'd say 3-4 passes is adequate. 

I used to have a CNC shark sold by rockler - only a 2' x 2' table  - and we were more aggressive with it and it only had a little bosch hand held trim router! 

If you're using $75 bits then I could see why you would be really gentle with it! 

If you stayed with the current setup, then maybe using a downcut spiral bit would work better.  You could play around with climb versus conventional cut, as well as the feed rate. 

Is the owner charging by the hour? 

 

[duburban]

I'm back in school at an Architecture program. One of the professors wrote a grant to buy it so its kind of "his" and then the schools. Im writing a manual for it and becoming a technician so I have a lot of questions.

In the future I'm going to spend some time pushing it and making a lot of test cuts. I think it can do more than what we're giving it.

A straight bit, 2 flute, did ok in the apple ply but we replaced the table and are running a downcut.

 

[Neathawk Designs]

What software are you using to do the design work?  Vectric has good forums (we use Vectric Aspire for most of our work), and then ShopBot has a huge online forum that might be helpful even though its a different brand machine.

 

[duburban]

Design work is done in Autocad (2D) and Rhino (3D/2D) mostly. We are running through Cut3d and Vcarve for the CAM software and will soon be using RhinoCAM also. I think that after a period where the machine was down conservative cutting is a good thing. We'll be ramping it up a little i'm sure.

I'm certainly going to cut a RonPaulk table that fits in my tundra bed ASAP.