On November 21, I went into the OEDK to use a 2 hour window for the Nomad CNC machine with Tori. About half of my time was spent refamiliarizing myself with the machine and how to use it because I had one of the first training sessions and forgot most of it. At this point in time, the noun I chose was a car, and halfway through my cut I realized that the assignment actually asked for us to fully cut out the noun. So, my design was incorrect and I decided to hand the rest of the time over for Tori so she can cut out her design.
The next day, I went back in and Tori and I booked consecutive 2 hour sessions so we can still work and learn together. I took a while looking for a new design and decided on a cat. After some more refamiliarizing and editing of this design, I decided to start a cut. With the first piece of wood, it was halfway done whenever the bit got stuck and a very scary moment happened where I thought I broke the machine and ruined everyone’s project. After a hug from Tori and a machine restart, it was completely fine. I started a new piece of wood and the cut was nearly finished whenever the machine completely stopped because my reservation was out of time. This was extremely frustrating but the technical difficulties took so much time that I was doomed.
Finally, on November 28, I went back in and was able to get 2 cats out of my session! Unfortunately, the wood I picked was pretty wonky and uneven, so some parts of the cat cut all the way through and other parts didn’t. I didn’t want to risk cutting through the piece and onto the base of the machine, so I decided to play it safe and keep these pieces. After lots of pushing and poking at the wood, I was able to get them out. I cut off whatever large pieces were still attached to the cat and went downstairs to begin sanding any ragged edges. I went from 60 -> 120 -> 220 -> 320 grit and eventually had some nice and smooth cats (-:
On December 1st, I went back in and finished my cats by adding a medium brown polish to them. Overall, I’m very satisfied with how they came out. I may use them as a Christmas gift since much of my family loves cats. I’m also glad that even though I had such a difficult time with this machine, I do feel much more comfortable using it and I’m less intimidated by the cutting portion of the Final Project.
Total Cost:
Wood scraps from wood shop = Free
CNC Rental @ $30/hour x 6 hours = $180
…TOTAL = $203.75
