Videos: Shallow Flow Bowl – CNC Woodworking Projects
This is my “Shallow Flow Bowl” design that I did a while back in Fusion 360. I decided to make a few of them out of wood for sale on Corbin’s Workshop and Etsy and some upcoming craft fairs. I also wanted to compare tool path generation (CAM) in Fusion 360 to Vectric VCarve.
I initially set out to make the exact same project in both pieces of software. My goal was a tab-cut out design in each. However, I ended up wasting a lot of time dealing with some chip out issues in the soft redwood, which sort of distracted me from the real thing I wanted to do. In the end, I made a jig in Fusion 360 and replicated the project a few times on my Avid CNC machine. I really like using the jig.
Here is the first video documenting that:
I posted the CNC files and a set of directions over on my website: CNC Bowl Project in Fusion 360 for people to purchase and give a try. I’ve had three or four people buy it (thanks!) which is encouraging. Overall, the hours of time I put into writing directions and making things easy to do probably isn’t worth the $30 or so I get from sales, but I enjoy sharing things with people. I also know that fewer people seem to use Fusion 360 for CNC woodworking when compared to Vectric VCarve.
VCarve is just more approachable and easier to use, but way less powerful than Fusion 360. That approachability even comes at a higher cost; VCarve Desktop is $350, whereas Fusion 360 offers a free hobby license. You can purchase a Fusion 360 subscription, which I do have, but that costs $382/year, and isn’t a one time purchase like VCarve Desktop can be. I say can be, because a lot of people pay for an upgrade each time a new release comes out.
So, I decided to replicate the project in VCarve in order to allow more people to make it. I released the video yesterday:
I also have the corresponding files available: CNC Bowl Project in Vectric VCarve. So far, I haven’t had anyone purchase these files and plans. I also decided to bundle both the VCarve and Fusion 360 files together, but produce separate ways of purchasing them to see which people end up buying more often. It’ll be an interesting experiment, but part of it might be dictated on how popular one video is over the other.
Here are a few pictures of the various ones I made so far:
