Inspiration

For this project, we were able to use the OEDK’s CNC machine (‘Carvey’) to cut interesting designs into wood. When I first saw some example cuts from previous classes, my mind immediately jumped to an art project that I had created in a printmaking unit during my senior year of high school (about two years ago). It was an ink stamp of an owl that I carved just days after getting accepted into Rice, and it always reminded me of my excitement and wonder during that time. With new knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, I realized that I might be able to adapt my stamp design into something for the CNC machine.

Method

Using a photo (credit to my sister), I was able to carefully vectorize the image in Adobe Illustrator and make some small tweaks, knowing that some of the details would be difficult to achieve without an extremely small tool. I was very pleased that I was able to apply Illustrator techniques to this project. Then, I inverted the colors and imported the vector owl as an SVG to Easel, a great tool for setting up CNC operations on the Carvey.

I started out with an initial cut to become familiar with the CNC machine. After creating my first design in the wood, I realized that I would struggle to pull out the detail necessary to show the face of the owl in particular. Additionally, the current design required tweaks to some of the features to better allow the 1/16″ tool to create the design. After considering the size of the CNC tool and the blocks of wood, I chose to eliminate some of the branches and instead focus on the perched owl.

After cutting out an owl with much more clear detail, I was very pleased with the new iteration. I chose this as the final design, and cut a second owl. Then, I also chose to cut out the outline of the owl using the CNC machine for one of the owls. This also turned out really well, and I was able to move onto post-processing of the blocks. This included filing and sanding down the edges of the parts, which gave them a smoother feel. After this project, I was very happy with both CNC cuts, and I was also happy to bring my own past design to life in a new way.

Cost Analysis

Wood: 3 blocks, $0.40/block: $1.20

Labor: 2 hours (file preparation and tool use), $11/hour: $22.00

Overall, the costs of the three blocks were about $23.20, or about $7.73 per part.

 

Assigned Number: 11

-Kenton Roberts