I’m currently working on a project and trying to use up some scrap pieces. I ended up needing a piece that was longer than I had. So why no piece them together?
I know puzzle joints are common in join large pieces together. So I just scaled it down.
I made a wavy line about 12 inches long and then created two offset lines that were half the width of the bit. This way I could use the follow path function in MakerCAM on two different pieces and join them together.
This was a lot more involved than what I thought it would be when I started. Lots of test cuts. I found I needed about a 1/32” of tolerance to get the pieces to fit.
Right now this just slides together and is good enough for the project I’m working on; having some overlap (like a real puzzle joint) would be better (that way you are not relying just on the glue).
The nice thing about this is that it is just a line/path for the machine to follow. Getting to Gcode was a bit of a process. I used OnShape to create the line, offset to create bodies, then export to .dxf; then open in Inkscape and delete the unneeded lines (the centerline), save to SVG; then MakerCAM to create 2 follow path operations (1 for either side of the joint). There is probably a better way to do this 