Continuing where I left off yesterday with the design aspect of the new workholding system for the Pocket NC.
After quite a bit of thought and researching online, I found quite a few flaws with my original design.
One major one was the price of dovetail cutters already on the market; unfortunately, I underestimated the cost for small 1/8-1/4" endmills and found them going upwards of $100 per. My two main goals with this product are efficiency and low cost, and if the cutters alone cost $100+, that really limits my market. I decided to do some looking around and tailor the cheapest cutter I could find to my design. As it happens, there was a 1/8" dovetail endmill from Harveytool (#995208) for only $66.80, which isn't all that bad.
Another key thing I didn't really take into account was the size of the clamp itself. Since I 3D modeled it, it was hard to get a good idea on the actual scale in proportion to the machine, so I decided to 3D print a quick prototype, and just as I feared, it was quite large. I decided to scrap my original design and start from scratch. I researched online and found some of the more common designs for dovetail workholding and took inspiration for the new one. I also wanted to focus on making this part easy to manufacture with a simple and elegant design.
Here is the Duif Workholding v2.0 with an external clamp vs. the single-piece design of the v1.
I also commissioned a new logo for my small business project on Fiverr for $10 to make my product look more legit. I should get the first concept design in the next few days!
Spent 2:23:00 today on the project, bringing my total time up to 6:40:00 out of 20:00:00.
____
Public Update Post - Instagram @duifworkholding
Working through the design a bit more for the Duif workholding and found a few flaws in my previous design. I 3D printed my initial clamp system to see how it would sit on the Pocket NC, and I didn't really like how large it was. I ended up completely overhauling my original design for the V0.2 you see above. With this new clamp system, I changed how you grip the material with an external clamp piece and dual screws to spread the stock's gripping force. I also modified the dovetail angle to match with a cheaper cutter sold by Harvey tool.
I will be setting up an email newsletter very soon with design updates and features I will be adding to this product and get a timeline for product release!