I saw this lab as an opportunity to redeem myself in the art of penguin making after my many failures during the plasma cutting lab. This time, luckily, I succeeded!

I started my journey of penguin making when I used one version of a penguin as my intro to Easel image in class. We ended up cutting that penguin in class, but it didn’t turn out super good. Not deterred, I set off to finally make an actually good penguin. After looking through penguins on the Noun Project site, I eventually settled on the one I thought had the best combination of looking good and the potential to turn out well.

Fun story about preparing this image… When I found the image, I was in the OEDK, so I thought to myself, “Nick, let’s go to the computer lab and prepare the image and get it into Easel.” However, the CHBEs had other ideas as they were using every single computer in the computer lab. Next, I tried the downstairs computers. But alas! The CHBEs struck again, and they were using all of the downstairs computers too! Finally, I went to Mudd Lab just to remove the text from the image.

Anyway, once I finally found computers the CHBEs hadn’t invaded, I ran into another problem. We only have two wood CNC mills (that I know of), the Carvey and the X-Carve. When I first tried to use the Carvey, Arturo was using it and was going to be using it for a while. In addition, there were no lab assistants on duty to show me how to use the X-Carve. As such, I left. I then came back the next day after a long day of Ultimate Frisbee but alas, I ran into the same problem. Arturo was using the Carvey again. This time, however, there was a lab assistant there to show me how to use the X-Carve. We got the thing mostly set-up, but then the anonymous lab assistant jogged the X-Carve too fast, breaking the plastic protector a little bit and just generally messing with the device. Since the device would have to go through a decent amount of troubleshooting, I went outside to go check on the Carvey. When I got there, Josh was using the Carvey, and he had a line of around three people after him. Considering that I was going to help a friend move furniture soon and I didn’t have time to sit around waiting for two hours, I once again left. That night, I was finally able to get onto the Carvey and get to business.

I used 6 in x 2.5 in x 0.67 in cedar blocks for my material. For my bit, I used a 1/16 inch fishtail. The cuts actually went super smoothly. There was plenty of room for my clamps and my precious penguin. The cut itself came out well. The only major flaw in the penguin is that his right shoulder is a little injured.

After I had run both jobs, I sanded all the faces of the pieces with 220 grit sandpaper. Once the pieces had been thoroughly  sanded, I gave my penguins a nice coat of stain. Once of them got a mahogany stain, and the other got a walnut stain. Once I had stained my penguins, I was done!

– Nick Lester

Easel link: http://easel.inventables.com/projects/PKfLxSGDlgkEM0hFcdIQoA