{"id":2968,"date":"2017-10-30T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/?p=2968"},"modified":"2018-01-03T20:04:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T03:04:51","slug":"finishing-my-pitchcar-connector-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/?p=2968","title":{"rendered":"Finishing My PitchCar Connector Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

I cranked up the CNC machine this weekend for the first time in a few months.\u00a0 Back in the summer, I was really in a groove with the machine and things seemed to go well.\u00a0 Having not messed with anything for a while, it seems that familiarity has left and I need to retrain myself a bit.<\/p>\n

I was going to start up on my Dropzone Commander building bases project<\/a> but before I get that underway, I needed to finish off one last pending project: my Pitchcar regular-to-mini converter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’ve been working on this project for awhile<\/a>, even starting before I thought about getting a CNC machine.\u00a0 For all my effort<\/a> though, I only had one working prototype and since Pitchcar tracks make a loop, I had a way to convert down to the mini-sized tracks but didn’t have another piece to convert back up.<\/p>\n

This project ended up being a bit more complicated than I anticipated. I initially thought I could use or modify an existing file but that ended up being more trouble than it was worth.\u00a0 I was beginning to feel like the tolerances needed to make these puzzle pieces fit correctly would be beyond me but little by little, I made progress.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My crude hand cut attempt at the top of the picture was before I thought of getting a CNC machine.\u00a0 In many ways, this project led me to seek out a CNC machine and so it was good to get back to this and see if my latest version worked.\u00a0 I got bold at first and was cutting full pieces but soon realized that I needed to conserve material so then I went to just fixing the specific puzzle connector that I needed.\u00a0 The second piece from the bottom was the first successful piece (though it wasn’t perfect and needed a little sanding to completely fit).\u00a0 The changes I made manually to that penultimate piece made the final modifications in the file for the last piece.<\/p>\n

Right before my hiatus, I set up the latest file based on the working prototype and some tweaks I needed to make. Then I had the machine all set up and ready to start but had to leave and then never made it back to start the milling.\u00a0 I didn’t want to tear that all down to start my DZC project (finish what you start!) so I would make sure I could test out this latest attempt and see what happens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All-in-all, the piece worked out great.\u00a0 It fit perfect and the modifications meant for no post-processing to finalize the piece.\u00a0 Well almost.\u00a0 This piece is complicated for another reason as well.\u00a0 Not only did I need to match the puzzle-piece connector of the regular-sized track and the mini-sized (which turned out to not be as simple as scaling down the connector), but the two track pieces are not the same height.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s very slight but there is a noticeable difference between the regular and mini-sided track pieces.\u00a0 This being a dexterity flicking game, even this small height difference can catch the sliding discs and ricochet them backwards, ruining a shot.\u00a0 Now I had to work the puzzle connectors and work out a method of planing the piece at a sleight angle so that it was shorter on the mini side than the regular side.\u00a0 Since the track pieces aren’t the same size as any stock piece I can find, I knew I’d have to plane the pieces a little bit but I didn’t count on having to plane it at an angle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After messing with measurements over and over, I was able to shim up to the correct size and create the connectors.\u00a0 A quick little map set and I can call this project done.\u00a0 I can now combine both of my Pitchcar sets to make for some interesting options.\u00a0 Having these connectors correct and planing of the piece sizes locked in, I can really start making some wacky pieces now.\u00a0 The last little addition will be to cut the red wall guides into the piece so I can add walls when I want.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I cranked up the CNC machine this weekend for the first time in a few months.\u00a0 Back in the summer, I was really in a groove with the machine and things seemed to go well.\u00a0 Having not messed with anything for a while, it seems that familiarity has left and I need to retrain myself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[484,2,10,316],"tags":[339,241,152,153],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cnc-milling","category-general","category-resources","category-variants","tag-cnc-machine","tag-dropfleet-commander","tag-pitchcar","tag-pitchcar-mini"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3452,"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions\/3452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pimpmyboardgame.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}