Clarinet Barrel Segments

The primary purpose of my CNC adventure is to be able to create Clarinet Bells and Barrels made of segmented wooden circles.

Here’s a public link to my OnShape Document so you can see what this involves in making barrels. Bells will be even more complicated. Onshape

And the KM workspace. workspace_R1.kmz (411.4 KB)

Note that for barrels, inside curves are perpendicular while the outside curves are compound curves. The ends of each segment are critical as these, and the top and bottom faces, are the gluing surfaces.

The material will be exotic wood such as mesquite, cocobolo, etc. So very dense wood.

My lack of knowledge about doing this is total, so I truly appreciate any help offered.

As you surely realize, these small segments break easily. So, each barrel will be fully lined with 3D printed carbon fiber PETG plastic.

I added a second outline pass to your job. The first one clears the “shadowline” and the second one follows the curvature of the faces (disable outside only does this) which is more of a “draping” curvature. If you run the second one without the first, depending on your material, you could break a bit.

r1-double-outline.kmz (608.0 KB)

Thanks

I’ll go try this out!

Well that was a disaster. I think it’s caused by the stock I’m using, which is MDF and is 9mm thick whereas the part is 6.4 mm thick. It did the 1st operation nearly completely thru the stock, and was leaving the tabs. Then the bit broke.

How can I have it clear the overhead stock before cutting the outer outline and proceeding to the next op?

Or could I use the 3/4” surfacing bit I bought from IDC to reduce the thickness of the mdf 1st? Cannot do this on my planer because the stock is too small.

what does your operation chain look like? I’d recommend:

  1. Index absolute 180 degrees
  2. Roughing (clear bottom of stock)
  3. Index absolute 0 degrees
  4. Roughing (clear top of stock)
  5. Lathe (lathe expects to start with 0 degrees rotation)

Not using the 4th axis for this.