When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Thursday 4 April 2013

Oval is the new round tire



I ran the 2 other toolpaths needed to finish the 4 sidewalls on the cartoon F1 car tires first thing this morning. I have come down with a nasty cold, so I haven't actually been putting in full days at the shop since Monday. But, I'm almost at 8 hrs today-almost!
The rest of the tire thickness will be made from 4 layers of 3/8" black pvc. I have to save my last bit of 1/2" pvc for the rear tire sidewalls. These were just profile cut. Once they were glued up, I rabbeted them on our small table saw for the tread grooves. I cut the rabbet right down the center of the joints. This will hide the seams, as well as let me have a track that I can use to do a final chem-weld in. Once the rabbets were cut, I glued the sidewall pieces on and gave them a quick sanding.

After I have done a final sanding, I will brush the whole tire with VC-1, which will smooth the semi-porous pvc. Then they'll get good coat of paint!

I glued up the car body slabs, and gave them a good sanding. After my material "miscalculation" it took longer than I would have liked, but it happens!
In the beginning, I spent a while in the computer trying to figure out the best way to handle the cockpit recess. But I finally decided it would be easier to use the drill press to "mill" out the opening. I drew a pencil line, using the body shape as a guide, to mark out the edges, then went to town with a 1/2" drill bit.
Only the sidewalls of the cockpit recess need to be clean, as I plan on placing the driver on a plate of 1/8" pvc, which will cover the bottom of the recessed opening. With the seams filled, it was off to a pile of high build primer coats.
I have had really good luck with the Rustoleum black sandable primer, so I chose that as a filler/ primer. Goes on fairly thick, and dries in a reasonable amount of time, plus it's pretty resilient to whichever finish coat we're going to be using.
Just the rest of the tires, the driver, and the spoilers, and were done. Oh, and the final paint.
8)
JO









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