Filed under: makeLab Student Post
Zero Hour
Since the Gizmo pin-up day, each team has been busy working on their final projects; everyone has a clear design concept, as well as experience with using the CNC machine. Now, it’s more about time management to complete final iterations. There are about 9 teams, which means 9 projects are going to be produced using one CNC machine and all must finish by December 13th, the final review day.
The most interesting thing about working on digital fabrication projects is the problem solving process generated when designing the full scale version of a design. At that point we can see the creative problem solving of each group.
Kyle Post is fabricating his modular system, which consists of 100 wood logs that need to be milled by December 13. If he utilizes the CNC operation on each piece of wood, individually, time consumption would be excessive, as well as inaccurate. Kyle created a way to mill a large quantity of the logs in the same time and with very similar dimensions. He attached the wood logs to a piece of 4×8 OSB which was marked with a grid to orient each piece. In that way he determined the location of each piece inside Rhinoceros 3d software so he can machine multiple logs efficiently and accurately.
While a similar cutting pattern will be used on the surface of each log, the uniqueness of color and texture log-to-log will create a pronounced surface depth. Logs that are partially broken or have some fissures, holes or wood knots increase the individual character.
While mass-milling the side friction fit joints, the router bit Kyle was using wore out from excessive use.. Kyle installed a new bit on the CNC machine, but received different cutting outcomes. He quickly realized the need to reconfigure the routing bit tool (due to manufacturing inaccuracies) in Rhinoceros software in order to produce precise friction fit joints. This showed how accurate the CNC machine is and the inaccuracies a bit change can make.
By: Ali Alwayel
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