To begin this project, the first thing that I did was get a nice photo from noun project that I liked and load it into carbide motion so that I could create a tool path. I chose a nice hand and flower because I like sustainability and thought I could gift this project to a few friends who also enjoy sustainability. Regardless of the outcome, hopefully it would be a nice holiday gift for whomever receives it.
Okay, so the project is now in carbide create. I saved it as a carbide file and went on.
I went to the CNC cutter. I really preferred the smaller machine over the largest one, I felt like it was simpler. This is likely a misnomer and Madison even said it is the same, still I chose the tiny CNC: the Nomad. Here, I uploaded my carbide create file into carbide motion, started the machine, calibrated the machine with the tool, then cut.
My cut was 21 minutes in total and I had a few mishaps, I’ll discuss those soon but after this section. When I used the CNC, I vacuumed every 5 minutes (when saw dust piled up). When I did this, I paused my print and then continued it once I cleaned a little. I had some issues with the clamp system, but I realized that it was the scrap sacrificial wood I was using–it was too messed up (before I used it) to be used anymore and was affecting the leveling of my tool. I changed this and really cranked the tool down, which helped me out a lot.
Here is a photo of my piece after I vacuum (below). This piece is one of the failures, I will talk about this right after.
Here are 3 of my pieces. At this point, I had placed the contour after my piece but when I re downloaded my file, it was an older copy that I emailed to myself, creating the bad design on the top. The design in the middle is one of my original pieces. The design on the bottom is a good design but I wanted to get more out of the machine, so I changed the bit size and I edited the settings on file, giving me a different design. To clarify, the design on the bottom is from my training. After sitting on the design, I decided I wanted something more intricate, so I went with the design in the middle. What I would later learn is that the design in the middle is way harder to post process.
Below is a photo of my clean CNC clean up. I vacuumed everything, took the clamp apart to vacuum it and vacuumed the screws and motors that move the CNC head. I tried to leave it better than when I found it.
Here are my two flowers after I finished using the CNC. These are prior to post processing.
To process the flowers I used two sandpapers, a 120 and a 320. To get some of the really hard places on the piece, I used a knife to wedge out any errors from the CNC (there were a few on the flower’s petals, which is okay).
After I processed the flowers, I stained them with “Tried & True” which left the nice look of the grain. I did a stain and wash technique, where I stained the piece and wiped it. I put two light coats on my piece and let them dry.
After I stained my pieces, I gave them an incredibly light coat of clear spray paint, which should prevent hand oils from affecting their look for years. Again, I really want these to be meaningful gifts. Also, these are my final flowers on the turn in table.
Here is the cleaned up table outside on the deck. I tried to clean up the sanding scrap as much as possible by sweeping it up.
Onto the cost analysis for this project. The final cost is $339.25. So about $170 for each piece of wood. This is a little insane, considering the project’s theme is sustainability. Regardless, let’s talk about the cost as a whole. The cost is inflated because the materials, paint and spray paint, are purchased in bulk. Similar to every other cost in this class, the cost is also inflated by renting the makerspace for a month, which is a long amount of time. We could definitely get the cost down by producing more parts within the span of that month. To note labor, no designer was payed for this project (the industrial designer is for carbide create work), but I list a designer for the conceptual amount we would likely pay someone in industry. Let’s entertain the project without a designer, well it would be about $3 less. So yes, there is an argument for including a designer cost or not. Whichever is more realistic, it doesn’t really impact the cost. Why include it then? Well, we want to increase the price of our design, maybe we could hire a designer to create a better design, something that adds value. Additionally, maybe we could get a designer to help us create a brand. These are all just loose thoughts but there is a need to say that a business model could be created around hiring a designer to elevate to name of a brand, raising cost. The best bet is to draw the price at $15, do mass production of 50 batches per batch. That is two of these designs a day. Then hire some cheaper local designer to elevate brand image. I think we would be able to produce the blocks for roughly $10 of cost if one specialized individual, like myself, did all the work. An occasional new designer could be brought in to continue elevating brand image. Basically, their audience, would become our audience, so we could continue to grow. Also, $15 is relatively low entry cost, so I think it is accessible to a wider audience. Even better, the wood blocks could be labeled with where they were sourced. This model changes too much of the current evaluation, so I won’t entertain it greatly. All and all, the blocks are too expensive for an audience but as a gift, they will serve their function. In the future, their are many business models that we could apply to aid with the eventual fiscal success of this product.
