Week 7: CNC

individual assignment

for this week´s assignment, i wanted to use the CNC to make a butterfly table to use as a center table for my living room.

i found some butterfly themed furniture for inspiration on pinterest first

I designed and simulated the table on rhino

i changed the wing design to be slightly more complex

preparing the cutting file

i used rhinocam to create the files and customised the settings for the CNC at the lab

first i had to separate the layers as screws, holes, cutting and engraving

i then had to create my stock. which dani helped me measure from the material room.

the size of my stock was 2.4m x 1.2m x 15.1mm

i pull the curves to the stock.

started assigning the properties of the cutting order and material.

i created new processes for different layers and i had to assign the cutting order and the depth of cut for each layer

adding screws to keep the material flat throughout the cutting process. it is important that the screws never intersect with the toolpath of rest of the the cutting process

the cutting file is ready and ready for export into g-code

the g-code didn,t look correct a couple of times and I had to re-export all of them because i had chosen the wrong machine in the settings. thankfully gabriel from the lab noticed that something was wrong before we started cutting. and the time was way too long like 20 hours- which was unrealistic fot a simple cut with no machining.

cutting with the Raptor x-sl CNC

thank you gabriel and gennaro from class for helping me carry the stock to the machine

i used a 6 mm with 2 downward flutes.

the cutting process went smoothly and the results were as expected.

setting the 0 for X and Y by moving it with the remote control. then setting the 0 for Z by setting it with much smaller movements.

starting the cutting process.

hammering with a chisel to cut off the bridges and removing the final output

starting the sanding process by sanding off the tabs and edges

assembling to check the fits again before adding varnish

i accidentally added two slightly different colours of varnish on both sides. since i did one side, let it dry overnight then did the other side, i mixed up the varnish colours- but i liked the effect so i went with it

here is the final table in my living room (ignore the mess)

group assignment

link to repo coming soon

notes