Machinery For The Shop

[Dave Richards]

I thought I'd share this sketch I've been working on. Most of the model was created a few years ago. I used it to create parts lists and assembly instructions for the Router Boss and its accessories. Recently I had to pull the model out to add a new accessory.



It's probably a good example of a model drawn with too much detail for most folks. I drew all the screws and things like the system that translates the crank's rotation to the linear side to side motion of the sliding bar. There are quite a few accessories and other parts that aren't shown in this model. All of those parts get shown somewhere in the documentation, though.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

I'm still completely blown away by some of your models. Amazing detail.

 

[ErnieM]

Hang in there Dave - you'll get the hang of using SketchUp one of these days:rotflm:.

 

[Dave Richards]

Thank you, Bill.

Ernie, people keep telling me that but I'm starting to wonder if they maybe they are just blowing smoke.

 

[sawman101]

I thought it was a photo. Wow! My drawings look like the kinda stuff a little kid gets his behinder blistered for decorating the living room wall!

 

[Gotcha6]

Drawings? We don't need no stinking drawings!
We just get an idea in our head and after 6-8 tries and redos, we get it to work! :nah:
All seriousness aside, it is a great design and I only wish I had the patience to generate such graphics. Keep it up. :icon_thum

 

[SteveHall]

I thought I'd share this sketch I've been working on....

What rendering software are you using to get this? And any image post processing?

 

[Dave Richards]

Steve, I use Kerkythea for rendering. It's freeware and very powerful. On this one I only rendered the transparent material for the router plate. All other surfaces use the same material with a wee bit of shininess set. Similar to this. (Same view, moved one of the two lights.) It was then combined with a faces only export and a lines only export from SU. The lines export uses a line style I created. No other post processing besides combining the images. The render was only a few minutes and combining less than 2 minutes.

 

[SteveHall]

Dave, thanks for the info. I used Kerkythea years ago but became concerned when the developers moved their efforts to a proprietary product. Is the support still strong?

That's very impressive for two minutes. Is this on a powerful machine or a laptop? Is the processing GPU or CPU? Maxwell uses CPU and it is slow without a farm.

 

[Dave Richards]

I don't know if there's any real ongoing development of Kerkythea since Thea was put into motion but there is still a pretty good forum if you have questions. I'll admit I use about 5% of what KT can do but it's plenty for my use.

The render to a little more than 2 minutes. Maybe 10 (I was doing other stuff while it ran). It was the post processing that didn't take more than 2 minutes.

I've got a moderate powerful desktop but not anything really special. The processing is CPU based but I never find it is hogging resources.

 

[StephenK]

Great job, Dave. You inspire me to wish I had more time to spend modeling on my computer. My educational background is in 3d modeling/rendering/animation. I always preferred architectural creation, which is probably why I'm drawn to furniture. My career took me in a different direction, and today I enjoy a similar process using wood and a chisel, as opposed to polygons. Control + z doesn't seem to work, though

 

[Dave Richards]

Thank you, Stephen. I think you should spend more time modeling in your shop, though. At the end of the day, the model I've drawn is still only a picture.

It would be nice to have a Ctrl-Z in the shop.

FWIW, the new accessory for the Router Boss is called the 4th-Axis Work Holder. It makes it easy to use the router like a lathe to make round stuff and the head with the crank has an indexer so you could do things like cutting mortises or flutes around the work.

 

[ErnieM]

Dave - Inspired by your model, I downloaded Kerrythea and began to [STRIKE]learn[/STRIKE] play with it. Like SketchUp, I assume Kerrythea is easier to use than it first appears. However, I viewed multiple basic videos on the tube and found them to be not basic enough. Do you know of a good beginner's tutorial?

 

[Dave Richards]

Ernie, I do think Kerkythea is easier to use than it first appears but there are a lot of available settings so the interface looks confusing. I'm sorry. I don't know of any very basic tutorial videos out there. I gleaned some of what I know from reading the forum at the Kerkythea site and much from experimentation and thinking about it from the point of view of a photographer. As I said, I use just a small part of what KT can do. The process is pretty straightforward for me and I'm satisfied with the results. I have no interest in spending hours trying to create photo-realistic images so I developed a fairly streamlined process that does what I need it to do.

Perhaps we could arrange a time to look at it together and I can show you how I get through it.

 

[ErnieM]

Dave, thanks so much for your offer. I'll read and try to understand the available forums before bothering you with questions whose answers I could have figured out for myself. For those that remain, I'll be more than grateful for your advice and guidance.