Introduction
This project is a great first project for any beginner.
It’s not only an easy one, but also one you can use on a daily basis. A cutting board is also a great gift for Christmas or other special occasions.
Material
The Gcode is made to get the board out of a 186 x 408 x 20 mm stock.
We used cherry wood for our board, but you can use any material you want for this project (keep in mind that it should be food safe to be safely used as a cutting board).
Trick: Oversize your stock (+20mm at each side) to be able to secure it properly to the spoiler board. Securing it firmly to your spoiler board will not only avoid your piece to fly around, but will also reduce the amount of vibration during milling and by means improve the surface finish. Go check our “Feeds and Speeds explained” article to learn more about the influence of parameters on your milling results. |
Tip: In general any wood coming from a tree that gives fruit you can eat, should be food safe. Fruit tree woods are obviously perfect for this project, but beech and maple are also safe to use. |
End Mill
We used a 6mm 3-flute flat end mill for this project. You can buy one directly on our webshop.
If you’d like to edit the Fusion360 project (to use another end mill for example) you can download it at the end of this article.
Milling
The G-code is made out of 3 basic operations:
The hand pocket allows you to easily pick up the board from a table even if it is heavily charged. The spindle should be set to run at 20-25 000 rpm as our feedrate is 3000 mm/min. The pass height is set to be 3 mm.
The hole is aimed to welcome a rope for hanging your board to the wall. The spindle should be set to run at 20-25 000 rpm as our feedrate is 3000 mm/min. The pass height is set to be 3 mm.
The contour of the board will leave a 0.3 stock at the bottom that should be cut with a chisel or a knife to free your piece. The spindle should be set to run at 20-25 000 rpm as our feedrate is 3000 mm/min. The pass height is set to be 2.5 mm.