For this project, I wanted to created one turtle with smaller turtles on its back.

I started using the noun project for turtle files and then went into Adobe Illustrator to create the design I was hoping for.  The largest turtle was cut all the way through, the larger of the two smaller turtles was cut to a 0.2″ depth and the smallest turtle was cut to a 0.1″ depth.

I set up the X Carve and zero-d the machine with a setup that would cut my piece twice.  Luckily from here, everything went very smoothly and the machine (while loud) cut through both of my pieces with small tabs that I easily removed with sandpaper.

After removing my turtle pieces from the machine, I sanded both pieces with a larger grit first and then moved down to a smaller ~120 grit sandpaper before moving on to finishing the wood.

As the final step in this project, I opted to stain my turtles with a transparent “white” stain that enhanced the color of the wood but didn’t alter it significantly.  I finished the turtles by spraying them in clear coat.

In the future, I would spend more time working with the design and X Carve settings to make sure that there are fewer chips in the wood from the cut.  I also might pick a different piece of wood to create the turtles because I did not enjoy the look of the plywood from the side profile of the turtles.

Cost Evaluation:

Materials: I used a piece of wood from the X Carve room in the basement that was 6×11.5″.  On Hobby Lobby, this plywood would be $3.  I used a small amount of stain and a very small amount of clear coat.  I would generously estimate that these together would cost $2.

Time: Overall, this project took me 2 hours to complete.  At my hourly rate of $25/hour, the labor cost would be $50.

Machine Use: The NJIT Maker-space hourly rate for using their CNC Table Router is $60/hour.  I used the CNC router for a 30 minute cut.  With 15 minutes of setup and 15 minutes of cleanup, I would have a machine use fee of $60.

Total Cost: $115

I am amazed that such a small project would cost so much to manufacture should I try to remake the project without access to a maker-space and low-cost/free materials.