This week, we were tasked with CNC machining a file from The Noun Project, using at least two different depths. As I browsed the website, I was having trouble finding something that I’d like to cut into a block of wood. I eventually stumbled upon a saxophone, which stirred up all sorts of nostalgia for my seven years of playing sax in my middle school and high school bands. I decided to use a saxophone icon for my design, but I needed to cut something else into the wood at a second depth to fulfill the assignment requirements. I resolved to find a secondary file of a music note and add that to my design, cutting it at a different depth than the saxophone.

I thought the search for exactly which files I wanted to use would be a relatively simple process, but I was wrong. I downloaded one saxophone SVG, deleted the text present in the file using Vectr, and uploaded the resulting file into Easel. Strangely enough, the version imported into Easel had many of its curves simplified such that the design looked bad and was essentially unusable. After all, although curves can be adjusted in Easel, there seemed to be no sure-fire way to make the design regain its precise original shape. This shapeshifting problem seemed to be inherent in importing the file to Easel, since the SVG from Vectr looked fine when imported into Illustrator, and the issue persisted despite repeated redownloads and reuploads. I finally decided to give up and download a different saxophone file entirely. This time, I downloaded this icon, as shown below. However, I wasn’t particularly fond of the saxophone’s thumb rest being part of the design because its shape had already been approximated in a number of ways, so there seemed to be no reason to try and be “anatomically correct” in this one regard. Thus, I imported the file into Illustrator, trimmed the thumb rest, and successfully uploaded the design into Easel with all curves intact.

When it came to finding a music note icon to use, the curve-truncating problem only got worse. I knew I needed a note that was drawn with relatively thick lines so that the CNC mill could cut the design with a drill bit. However, I had to download countless SVGs before finding one that would remain in one piece when imported into Easel. As shown below, I finally tried this design, which uploaded successfully. At last, I had functional files that would form the components of my CNC design.

As for the actual logistics of my cut, I decided that I wanted the music note to be cut at a shallower depth than the saxophone because music travels toward the ears of the listener, so the music note should be closer to the viewer than the saxophone. Still, I didn’t want either of them to be recessed enough into the wood that they were difficult to see from an angle. Thus, I put the saxophone at a depth of 1/8-inch and the music note at a depth of 1/16-inch. I also decided that I wanted my design to be viewed with the wood block horizontal, since having extra space on the sides of the block seemed to have a more relaxed feel than having extra space on the top and bottom, which seemed as though the design was just barely squeezed into the available space. And what is jazz if not relaxed?

At this point, I heard from Caz about his attempt to run a CNC cut with a 1/32-inch bit that took an enormously long time to complete, so I decided to try and edit my design so that it could be cut with a more efficient 1/16-inch bit. The cut preview of my design looked perfect when a 1/32-inch bit was selected, but when a 1/16-inch bit was selected, there was not enough space between the keys and the inner edge of the saxophone for the bit to cut through. This problem persisted even when I enlarged the saxophone and rotated it such that it had more room to expand. As such, I decided to open the SVG in Illustrator and move the saxophone’s keys away from its inner edge. With a bit of rotating and expanding, the resulting SVG could be cut entirely with a 1/16-inch bit, as shown below.

Finally, I was ready to make my first cut. After figuring out how to swap drill bits, using the Carvey CNC machine was surprisingly easy, and it completed my cut in just 9 minutes. The design was cut as intended, although as one would expect, the inner edges were rather “fuzzy” and would need to be sanded in some way or other. Additionally, I had apparently clamped the wood too tightly, as a significant indentation had formed under the Carvey’s main clamp.

First, I took on the challenge of sanding the tiny crevasses of my design. After being told by Liz Kacpura (on numerous occasions) to try sanding wood with the sandblaster, I finally decided to try it despite my concerns of getting an imprecise and nonuniform result. However, the sandblaster removed material much more slowly than I had anticipated, and with a few short and careful blasts of sand, I had a part with crisp interior edges and no noticeable unevenness.

As for the clamp indentation, I used the belt sander on the front face of the block until the indentation was gone. Because the other faces of the wood block weren’t perfectly smooth either, I went ahead and belt-sanded the remaining faces, too. I then smoothed down the edges with sandpaper, and finally, I sanded all faces and edges with a very fine sandpaper for maximum smoothness.

Coming into the final leg of post-processing, I wasn’t exactly sure which direction I wanted to take my design. I knew I wanted to incorporate beeswax to mimic the golden color of a saxophone (which is also why I had selected lightly-colored pine wood), but I was torn between simply using beeswax all over or using mahogany gel stain on the outer surface of the block with beeswax in the interior cavities. I decided that, for this first cut, I would coat the entire part in beeswax. Coating the small crevasses in beeswax posed a problem, particularly between the keys. After trying a small paintbrush and Q-tips, I finally found that the best method was to dip a pipe cleaner in beeswax and run it through the small areas. The one downside was that the pipe cleaner left small hairs behind, which I had to remove very carefully. When it came time to wipe off the beeswax, that’s where Q-tips really came in handy, as they soaked up the beeswax like a sponge. Finally, I rubbed the outer surface with mineral oil, completing the post-processing on my first iteration. As shown below, the beeswax really helped bring out the grains of the wood, and I was happy with how this part came out.

The second time around, I wanted to try using mahogany stain on the outer surface of the block, as I figured some contrast could help make the saxophone “pop”. However, I knew it would be a nightmare to try and prevent the stain from spilling into the interior cavities while applying it, so I decided to try applying the stain to the wood before performing the CNC cut. I applied the stain, wiped it off after 3 minutes, and let it dry for a day or so. Afterwards, as has been characteristic of our gel stain in the OEDK, the wood was a bit still sticky, so I sanded it sparingly with some high-grit sandpaper to smooth it out without removing an appreciable amount of the stain.

With the wood looking like a respectable block of mahogany, I proceeded to perform my CNC cut. I was worried that as the stain soaked into the wood, the 1/16-inch depth of the music note might have received some of the dark color, but this appeared not to have been the case, as all of the cut regions were perfectly light. Then came the issue of sanding the interior edges. I could no longer sandblast because this would, in all likelihood, remove portions of the mahogany stain. As such, I meticulously sanded each edge with a folded-up piece of sandpaper until all of them were smooth. Luckily, I had learned my lesson about clamping the wood into the Carvey, and this time I left no indentations on the sides of the wooden block.

As for further treatment of the wood, I applied beeswax in the interior cavities of the part in the same way as before. Additionally, since Pedro’s midterm project had achieved quite a sheen on his mahogany stain through the use of beeswax, I decided to try applying beeswax on top of the mahogany portions of my block as well. I went ahead rubbed the exterior with mineral oil as before, completing my second iteration.

Now came decision time, as I needed to choose between my two previous methods or go in a different direction entirely. Lining my two parts up side-by-side, I expected to like the high-contrast mahogany version better, but I actually felt as if the thin profile of the saxophone was getting swallowed up in all the contrast. Additionally, the saxophone-esque golden color that I wanted to highlight was not effectively communicated by applying it solely within this thin interior profile. With this color all over the wooden block, the first iteration was much more effective in this design goal. Overall, I found my first part to be very compelling, so I decided to move forward with it as my final submission.

Thus, I needed to create a second version of my first iteration, but this was simply a case of repeating my previous process. It wasn’t long before I had two smooth CNC-machined saxophones with lovely grains and a nice golden beeswax finish.

I really enjoyed using the Carvey in this assignment, as it is a relatively fast and easy way to create an intricate wooden design with varying depths. I look forward to using the full 3D potential of CNC machining when we create objects with gradient depths in our final project.