My Plexi 6V6 build

[EL34]

I think I am done with the front panel CAD work

It's down to panel 5 or panel 6

I like the oval panel 6 design but I also like the circle in panel 5

[Willabe]

I like the oval better.


         Brad   

[EL34]

Yeah, me too

[Willabe]

It's softer looking and makes the slots look better by moving them into more of an ark on their ends.


                 Brad   

[EL34]

Here's a straight on view

[SILVERGUN]

That looks great!

Kinda reminds me of an antique radio look

[EL34]

yeah, that's back when things had real styling

[Willabe]

Yeah, I like it.


       Brad     

[EL34]

It's on the CNC machine right now being cut
I'll have pics in a while

[EL34]

Yeeehaaaa.
It's done and it came out great

[Willabe]

Sure did!!!!!!     

What size and type of bit did you use? Spiral cut?

Did you cut it before or after you stained it? 


            Brad     

[MakerDP]

Bravo! That looks fantastic!

[MakerDP]

EL panels are flexible plastic panels that are coated with electroluminescent material that emit a soft glow when electrically charged.

Follow this link for examples of EL panels, tape, wire, etc...

http://www.adafruit.com/category/50

Oh wow... they even have EL piping! Didn't see that before...

[EL34]

Sure did!!!!!!     

What size and type of bit did you use? Spiral cut?

Did you cut it before or after you stained it? 

            Brad     

1/4 inch two flute end mill at 15,000 rpm
Straight down plunge at a very slow speed
Then a faster speed for the cuts

I under cut in two depth passes by .003" and then did a final pass at full depth for a super clean finish cut


It was already stained and clear coated when I did the cuts. All I did was take a small brush and brush some stain inside the cuts to get rid of the blond wood

[EL34]

EL panels are flexible plastic panels that are coated with electroluminescent material that emit a soft glow when electrically charged.

Follow this link for examples of EL panels, tape, wire, etc...

http://www.adafruit.com/category/50

Oh wow... they even have EL piping! Didn't see that before...

That's some cool stuff

[Willabe]

1/4 inch two flute end mill at 15,000 rpm
Straight down plunge at a very slow speed
Then a faster speed for the cuts

I under cut in two depth passes by .003" and then did a final pass at full depth for a super clean finish cut


It was already stained and clear coated when I did the cuts. All I did was take a small brush and brush some stain inside the cuts to get rid of the blond wood

Well your method and machine did a great job!


                        Brad     

[DummyLoad]

EL panels are flexible plastic panels that are coated with electroluminescent material that emit a soft glow when electrically charged.

Follow this link for examples of EL panels, tape, wire, etc...

http://www.adafruit.com/category/50

Oh wow... they even have EL piping! Didn't see that before...

That's some cool stuff

that's a cool site for open source hackers. it's owned by limor fried, she's an MIT grad who ventured off into her own biz. check the whole site out, she sells some cool stuff.


--pete

[DummyLoad]

Sure did!!!!!!     

What size and type of bit did you use? Spiral cut?

Did you cut it before or after you stained it? 

            Brad     

1/4 inch two flute end mill at 15,000 rpm
Straight down plunge at a very slow speed
Then a faster speed for the cuts

I under cut in two depth passes by .003" and then did a final pass at full depth for a super clean finish cut


It was already stained and clear coated when I did the cuts. All I did was take a small brush and brush some stain inside the cuts to get rid of the blond wood

i'm assuming your cut job was an inside contour: do you recall what the feed rate on your X & Y axis? how many passes and what cut depth did you use? it'd be nice to have a staring point since i've never cut wood on my CNC, just aluminum and Garolite...   


thanks,


--pete

[MakerDP]

EL panels are flexible plastic panels that are coated with electroluminescent material that emit a soft glow when electrically charged.

Follow this link for examples of EL panels, tape, wire, etc...

http://www.adafruit.com/category/50

Oh wow... they even have EL piping! Didn't see that before...

That's some cool stuff

that's a cool site for open source hackers. it's owned by limor fried, she's an MIT grad who ventured off into her own biz. check the whole site out, she sells some cool stuff.


--pete

Yep. I've ordered a fair amount of stuff from them. Us "makers" love that site. She's come up with some very innovative stuff.

Another very cool lighting product there are the Neopixels - Individually addressable RGB LED strips, arrays, rings, etc. controllable with any microcontroller (like Arduino.) I've seen people make these into large video displays (think stadium Jumbo Tron but on a smaller scale.)

I'd like to do a "neon retro jukebox" sort of design for a tubes-up combo. Done well I think it would look really neat on stage.

[TubeGeek]

I love that front panel!


I am working on using some light blue EL wire in my latest build. 

[EL34]

i'm assuming your cut job was an inside contour: do you recall what the feed rate on your X & Y axis? how many passes and what cut depth did you use? it'd be nice to have a staring point since i've never cut wood on my CNC, just aluminum and Garolite...   
thanks, --pete

see my screen short for all the settings I used

Inside contour?
In CamBam the MOP is called profiling which is probably the same thing?
The tool is following a shape.
In this case I have it set for profiling the inside of all the shapes

I used real slow speeds because I did not want to splinter the wood.
3 for plunge and 10 for cutting, shown in screen shot

Two rough cut passes
-0.23 inches down, then -0.47 inches down
Cutting  -0.002 back from the lines as a roughing clearance

One final pass at -0.47 with the roughing clearance pass set to zero so it does one final clean pass following the lines

I set the tool width to 0.245 inches wide to fool CamBam because my parallel lines were exactly 0.25 inches apart
It has a problem doing that if the tool bit is set to 0.25 inches wide

[DummyLoad]

i'm assuming your cut job was an inside contour: do you recall what the feed rate on your X & Y axis? how many passes and what cut depth did you use? it'd be nice to have a staring point since i've never cut wood on my CNC, just aluminum and Garolite...   
thanks, --pete

see my screen short for all the settings I used

Inside contour?
In CamBam the MOP is called profiling which is probably the same thing?
The tool is following a shape.
In this case I have it set for profiling the inside of all the shapes

I used real slow speeds because I did not want to splinter the wood.
3 for plunge and 10 for cutting, shown in screen shot

Two rough cut passes
-0.23 inches down, then -0.47 inches down
Cutting  -0.002 back from the lines as a roughing clearance

One final pass at -0.47 with the roughing clearance pass set to zero so it does one final clean pass following the lines

I set the tool width to 0.245 inches wide to fool CamBam because my parallel lines were exactly 0.25 inches apart
It has a problem doing that if the tool bit is set to 0.25 inches wide

thank you so much!   


i was estimating about 13-14 IPM with my machine running @ 22K RMP on the spindle. my machine's spindle is a porter-cable router.


--pete

[EL34]

I run a Bosch router motor but I use a super PID motor control
You mount a sensor that reads the rpm of the motor shaft
The motor speed stays constant, even under heavy loads

See the wire coming out of the end of the Router motor?
Big pic here
http://el34world.com/Misc/Cnc/CNC19.htm

It's so much nicer with an electronic control unit
http://el34world.com/Misc/Cnc/CNC19.htm

[DummyLoad]

I run a Bosch router motor but I use a super PID motor control
You mount a sensor that reads the rpm of the motor shaft
The motor speed stays constant, even under heavy loads

See the wire coming out of the end of the Router motor?
Big pic here
http://el34world.com/Misc/Cnc/CNC19.htm

It's so much nicer with an electronic control unit
http://el34world.com/Misc/Cnc/CNC19.htm

thanks for sharing. i'm hoping that i can pickup rotation off of the main-shaft by the collett.


--pete

[kagliostro]

Many Thanks for sharing


Franco

[EL34]

thinking about adding some blue LED's inside just for fun

[Willabe]

Hoho, that's the ticket right there!

That would light up the letters on the face plate if it wasn't painted on the back?


             Brad   

[EL34]

I think the Blue looks pretty cool

That would light up the letters on the face plate if it wasn't painted on the back?

I guess you mean edge lighting the plastic?


If you did that, then you would not be able to see the words in regular day light

[Willabe]

I meant back lit.


               Brad   

[EL34]

You mean like cut all the metal away until there is nothing holding the front panel on the amp 

[Willabe]

Dho!  That's right the chassis.


             Brad   

[EL34]

I guess it could be done
Not sure how you would remove all that metal?

Then you would have to figure out a way to evenly light every bit of text plus all 11 pot detents
Plus, picture what is right behind all of those cutouts
Pots, wires, etc

It would look like this I guess

[kagliostro]

To have light on labels

why don't to add a plastic faceplate with labels engraved on the back side as HotBluePlates has done on his Standel ?



K

[EL34]

There ya go Brad


I like the black on white faceplates personally

[MakerDP]

You mean like cut all the metal away until there is nothing holding the front panel on the amp 

This would be a great application of those EL panels I was showing you. Engrave the black faceplate as normal, cut an EL panel to fit the faceplate and affix it to the back of the faceplate or just sandwich the panel in between the faceplate and chassis front.

Hmm... I know you can cut these down to whatever size you want, but I don't know about holes for the pots and switches... Let me research that. If you can cut them to size, I'd think holes would be OK.

[EL34]

They would have to be about zero thickness


The face plates are .0625 inches thick (1/16") and there are really no much more threads left on the pots when combined with the .09 inch thick aluminum chassis

[MakerDP]

That could be a problem... they are about 0.5mm thick.

[Willabe]

I have had that problem with my aluminum chassis' and face plates too.

I found that the Mojo brand pots have a little bit longer threaded bushing that works. Problem is they only stock so many values. So far they have been most of what of I needed but I have had to use a few PEC military pots which cost a lot more.

OTOH, with a steel chassis, because their thinner, there might be enough room?


             Brad          

[EL34]

That could be a problem... they are about 0.5mm thick.

.5mm is pretty thin
That may work
Check them out and let me know what you come up with

[EL34]

I found that the Mojo brand pots have a little bit longer threaded bushing that works. Problem is they only stock so many values.

I thought about stocking those pots, but like you said, the values are limited

[Willabe]

Maybe next time you talk with you could bring up the bushing length for more values of pots for guys building with aluminum chassis and thicker face plates?


             Brad   

[EL34]

I could mention it and see
Don't hold your breath :)



I didn't really have any problems with the Alpha pots I stock
A .09 inch chassis and a .0625 inch faceplate works out just right
The Stout Chassis + Alpha pots is a good combo


Years ago, my Hoffman chassis were .125 inch thick aluminum with the same faceplate material
That was right on the edge of being too thick

[DummyLoad]

I found that the Mojo brand pots have a little bit longer threaded bushing that works.

yes, they are .4" long - specifically for vintage fender amps. 16ga (.058") chassis + faceplate + brass backing plate + internal tooth washer necessitates that: the values mojo stocks are used in the most common vintage fender amps.

--pete