7. Computer-Controlled Machining

Group assigment

Complete your lab’s safety training
Test runout, alignment, fixturing, speeds, feeds, materials and toolpaths for your machine
Document your work to the group work page and reflect on your individual page what you learned

Individual assigment

Make (design+mill+assemble) something big. For this assigment, I designed and fabricated a stool table . I used cnc machine to cutt all the parts.

Design process in SolidWorks

I began by creating a center rectangle to define the stool's base dimensions. I used construction center rectangle.

Then I created trapezoid sketch. The shape of the stool. With extrude tool, I added a 200mm offset to establish the stool's height. This approach facilitated the creation of a mirror part later. You can use center plane instead of creating new plane.

With the Offset Entities tool, I crafted the inner contours sketch, maintaining a 100mm distance from the outer edges.

I then added fillet to smooth the edges and designed tabs for the crossbars.

With the Linear Pattern feature, I duplicated the tabs across the design.

To complete the symmetry of the design, I mirrored the entire body on the other side using plane.

Note: Mirroring body is more efficient in this case since it has quite many features, it is recommended to mirror body instead of feature(s).

I then designed the crossbars

With move face tool, I added 0.25mm clearance, ensuring ease of assembly. This clearance value may vary depending on the material used.Therfore it is best practive the test it before cutting all pieces.

Finally, I used the Linear Pattern tool to replicate all the necessary crossbars.

Preparing Files in CorelDRAW

After completing the design, I exported the parts as DXF files and arranged them in CorelDRAW. This step helped me to visualize the material required and then I added text annotations for engraving.

Generating Toolpath in VCarve Pro

I imported the file in VCurve pro to calclate tool path. I started with text to be engraved first. I used 6mm diameter tool and engraved 5mm deep with two passes.