Serena’s CNC Rice Owl Logo | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

This is the last assignment for the EDES210 course before the final: using a CNC machine to cut shapes out of wood. I had never heard of or used CNC cutting before, so I initially planned to choose an SVG file online from sites like NounProjects.com/ creativefabrica.com. However, I found many of the designs either too complicated to cut with the #102 ⅛” default tool or not particularly appealing. Ultimately, I decided to download the Rice Owl logo, convert it to an SVG file using Adobe Illustrator, and import it into Carbide Create. The design was both meaningful to me and relatively easy to cut with the tool.

Some adjustments to the owl were necessary to make it cuttable. When I first imported the SVG into Carbide Create and added pockets, the system ignored certain closed curves because they were too narrow for the tool to pass through, leaving the owl’s shape incomplete.

To solve this, I edited the file in Adobe Illustrator, enlarging the parts I wanted to cut. I then scaled the design down to approximately 3.1″ x 3.3″ in Carbide Create and added a curve vector around the owl to match its shape for the contour cut. After adding tabs to three points of the outline, I set up pockets with cutting depths of 0.08″ for the head and 0.125″ for the neck. Once all toolpaths were created, I saved the g-code and prepared for cutting.

After completing the preparations, I calibrated the CNC machine and initialized it. Using the Nomad 3 CNC machine with Carbide Motion software, I secured the wood piece, set the homing device at the bottom-left corner, and probed the tool. Once everything was ready, I started the cutting process by selecting “run job.”

Each piece took 21 minutes to cut, for a total of 42 minutes. At one point, the wood wasn’t fully cut through, so I reinitialized the machine, jogged it back to position, and adjusted the max depth slightly deeper than the wood’s actual height. To protect the surface beneath, I added a thin piece of wood underneath the original material.

Once both pieces were cut, I vacuumed the machine thoroughly to clean up wood dust and debris. Using 220- and 400-grit sandpaper, I smoothed all surfaces before applying a natural wood stain for a polished finish. Since the original Rice Owl logo is blue, I spent an hour painting it using a 24-color acrylic paint set. After the paint dried, I sanded the piece again to ensure any areas that shouldn’t be painted were clean and free of color.