To start this project, I went on thenounproject and found four files: an eagle, a rabbit, a tortoise, and a shark. I chose files that had simple enough geometries that I thought they would work well on the Carvey, and made sure that they were all inverted (black images on a white background, as opposed to just a black outline but filled in white). This made it much easier to set up for CNC machining. Then I imported all of the .svg files into adobe illustrator, and copied them all onto a new template. I measured the piece of wood I would later cut on, made a box of the same size in illustrator, and scaled and moved the animals onto the square so they would fit properly on the wood.

Then I deleted the square and exported the file to Easel. 

Here, I deleted the eye of the rabbit so that all of the animals looked uniform. Then I input the size of the wood and the 1/16″ downcut bit that I was using, and set up the piece on the carvey before hitting ‘cut’.

The carvey cut one animal at a time. Here is what it looked like part of the way through:

On the first cut I did (I wound up doing 3 total), I positioned the clamp in the back poorly and the bit cut slightly into the clamp when it was carving the eagle’s wing. When this happened I paused the run, moved the clamp, and then resumed. It left a small notch in the clamp but did not affect my cut.

Here is what it looked like when the carvey was done:

And here’s how it looked after it had been cleaned up a little bit:

I cut two more identical pieces on two more pieces of birch. Then, I decided to try a little bit of post-processing. I thought that the wood stain might work well, and I found a color I liked for each animal (crimson for the eagle which I’m now passing off as a hawk, green for the tortoise, brown for the rabbit, and blue for the shark). I read the instructions on how to use the wood stain, and it said to rub it with a cloth. My parts were much too small to use a cloth without making a mess, so I needed to get a little more creative. I found some fairly pointed Q-tips in the wetlab, so I started with a few of those, and then to get the stain into the really small holes I used a little bit of solder (it sounds strange, but it actually worked really well).

I am planning to try using the planer in the woodshop to shave off the top layer to get rid of the paint smears on the edges and give the wood an even finish. I have not yet had time to do this since I was gone for fall break until this morning, but I may later today.

Here’s a closer view of one of the final pieces:

Update: I did have time to use the planer! I used it on both sides of the wood and it made it much smoother.

Cost:

• Wood: $5.25 (assuming each piece ~12 square inches and wood is ~7 per 48 square inches)
• Wood stain: negligible (used < 5ml)
• Labor: $44 (4 hours, assuming OEDK lab assistant cost of $11/hour)

Total Cost: $49.25

Number: 17