I’ve worked with the CNC mill before, so I had some background knowledge, but I was still excited to be creative with my pieces. My resulting pieces were two orange/gold orange slices.

Process

I began by booking the CNC mill and using the noun project to find an object I wanted to mill. I choose an orange slice, and began setting up the file to distinguish between the lines that were cut and those that were engraved. I uploaded the file from the Carbide Create to the Carbide Motion and used the 1/8 ball point drill to cut my print. The print involved different heights, and was somewhat complicated, so each print took about 30 minutes. The pieces came out with a lot of lines in the pockets (Image 1), so I sanded the pieces until they were smooth (Image 2).

  

Images 1 & 2: orange before/after milling

From here, I used orange and gold spray paint to spray my piece, along with a clear protective coat (Images 3 & 4). I used the tip of a pencil to detail some of the smaller lines on the orange slice.

  

Images 3 & 4: spray painted pieces

Successes & Failures

Since I already had experience in milling, I didn’t have many problems in the process. I think that my ending pieces turned out almost exactly the way I wanted them too, with the exception of the a few places where the paint didn’t dry correctly or the wood splintered. I also think that I could have decreased the space between each engraved layer in order to avoid the lines, and used a smaller mill bit in some of the more detailed areas.

Cost

• Wood: 1×12 in. piece = $15.85 (Amazon)
• Orange spray paint: 1/10 x $6.98 = $0.70 (Amazon)
• Gold spray paint: 1/10 x $6.98 = $0.70 (Amazon)
• 3 hours of labor x $10/hour = $30
• Total = $47.25