The third project in this class was relatively simple. We were tasked with carving out a “noun” from a block of wood. My noun in question was a simple Halloween design taken from thenounproject
“Halloween”
by P Thanga Vignesh
However, fearing that the small floating dots would require a small bit and result in a very long carving time, I decided to get rid of them in adobe illustrator.
I then downloaded this file as a SVG file and uploaded it to Easel.
From here I indicated the size of the wood I was using (roughly 90 mm x 125mm x 18 mm), scaled and positioned my design on the virtual block of wood, and selected the bit size along with the depth.
Then I lined up my block in the Carvey and made sure it was secure using the clamps. I also picked out and attached a 1/16″ bit. I then made sure to check all of steps that Easel took me through and started carving.
My first cut was fine, however, I realized that I could use up more of the wood and decided to scale up my design. I then repeated all the steps to carve out the next piece.
The result was nice, although somewhat rough. I decided to sand down the surface and was able to remove the rough edges.
I then repeated the steps to produce a replica.
Overall, a pretty simple and fun project.
Cost Analysis:
Setting up the file = 15 m total
Carving = 11m for each piece –> 22m total
Sanding = 15m total
Total time = 52 m
$10 per hour = $8.67
The cost of wood:
a .75 inch thick piece of wood that is 12″ x 30″ costs around $14 (360 inches ^2)
the area I used was about 3 x ( 5″ x 3.5″) = 52.5 inches ^2
So around 14.5% of $14 = ~ $2.03 for the cost of wood.