I had never used a CNC machine before this, and so the X-Carve was definitely a frustrating experience at first. Like most projects, however, this made me proud of my final work and my newfound skills. The main skills that I learned in this project included putting in and taking out a drill bit, working with Easel to adjust depths of a cut, how to determine which bit type is best for different applications, and how to maneuver the X-Carve.
In the name of school spirit, I had to make an Owl! I first imported the shape from the noun project and adjusted it to fit on the wood board of the desired size:
The first Owl that I made (with the help of Doug) was not large enough to get the full cutout around the eyes with the 1/8 inch downcut bit (I used a downcut since I was working with wood).
Therefore, in my next cut of the owl, I enlarged the shape and ensured on Easel that all depth cuts would go all the way through the owl’s outline. This final shape was about 3.5 inches by 3.5 inches, and I decided to cut it out using a rectangle made in Easel to allow for an easy, uniform cutout.
In preparation for the cut, I clamped the piece of wood I used (after ensuring it would accomodate my piece’s size with a sacrificial piece of wood under it, and I connected my computer to the machine:
After a few failed tries as I got used to using the instrument ( 🙁 ), I was able to get a good cut (through manually focusing the instrument in the bottom left corner, which I learned was very sensitive on z-axis placement):
Although the overall shape was good, some of the corners were overhanging a bit I used 400 grit sandpaper on these areas and wherever I could reach in the shape after using the belt sander around the bottom and sides. To decorate the shape, I decided to paint the top blue with spray paint (again school spirit), and use black paint on the bottom and edges to make the blue pop on the top.
The first layer of blue spray paint that I used, I didn’t account for many crevices due to the shape of the CNC machine. This made it so that there were areas along the edges that were not well painted, and the resulting first coat didn’t look great:
In my second coat, I made sure to spray at angles from both the top and bottom of the owl. I also kept tape around the sides and bottom of the square so that the parts of the shape that were to be painted black did not get excess blue coat:
The blue coat on the top now looked much better, and after letting it dry, I taped the top so that I could paint the sides and bottom black without overlapping the blue top:
After another light 400 grit sanding, I used the clear gloss finish on all sides of the shape (2 coats).
For the second shape, I carried out the same process, but I was able to paint and carve more effectively after the struggles on my first trial:
Cost Analysis:
Like most projects, the main cost was labor: I worked for about 8 hours on this, with a wage of $15 per hour ($120 total for labor). The X-Carve itself costs about $3,000, so this can be incorporated in the non-cost of raw materials, but since we were already supplied with the machine, this isn’t a cost incorporated into a single X-Carve project [1]. A single CNC bit is about $18.00, which can be incorporated into this cost since I definitely put some wear and tear on the bit 🙁 [2]. Including my failed trials and both pieces, I used about half of a pine 2×4, which cost about $4 [3]. Because I used very little spray paint or stain in comparison to the whole container, which is low cost anyway, this cost in negligeable [4].
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