And now, the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain…

As fate would have it, Brian would have to face the unrelenting ENGI 210 one last time before the coda of the semester. After grueling battles against finals, sleepless nights, and the making of a chess set, there was one final showdown before he finally broke from the shackles of the merciless wrath of sophomore fall: using the CNC machine. In the end, it is unclear who emerged victorious from the battlefield that was the OEDK, as Brian succeeded in producing something, but at a cost…

A common theme that pervaded my blog series was my slow descent to insanity, and this blog is an epic conclusion to that saga. I am typing this out after having pulled an all nighter to submit the project, which took way longer than I had expected, and which I worked on after having finished the final project. I am also struggling to pump out two lovely blogs, a statistics paper, and reviews for five biology podcasts before the semester finally comes to a close once and for all. Help

It was the beginning of the end after my CNC training session with Dr. Wettergreen on a fine Friday afternoon. My innate inclination to procrastinate prevented me from initiating the project early, so I waited until the last week of classes until I finally began. That is when I booked a two hour slot with the Fabman for what was to become the first of many failed attempts at using the machine.

There was a prerequisite to using the machine: being in possession of a petite, flat slab of wood. I entered the woodshop and utilized the SawStop and planar to produce four slabs (two as backup). It actually was my first time using them (I should have used them for the crate project at the beginning of the semester, but I did not), so that was an unexpected yet delightful learning outcome of this project.

With the magic of Gcode, a slab of wood can be transformed to an artistic masterpiece, a wholesome Christmas gift, or a positive mold for a chess piece; the possibilities are only limited by your imagination and your patience to learn how to properly use the CNC machine. As such, I prepared the Gcode file that would materialize someone else’s creativity (since it was easier to just browse https://thenounproject.com/ than to make my own file). I came across this file by Victoruler which I had an affinity to because it was simple yet complex, if that makes sense. It was no intricate landscape, but I could play with the file and assign different depths for each of the squares. I also added a circular contour around the shape that was exactly 3 in in diameter. Hopping from Adobe Illustrator, to Carbide Create to create the Gcode, to Carbide Motion to

bring it to life, I was starry-eyed, naïve, and unaware of what lied ahead of my first successful usage of the BitmanZero to probe the Nomad machine.

Behold a list delineating my multitude of attempts (keep in mind that I had to tape and wrench and probe and wrench and wrench again and vacuum after each try):

1. I used double-sided tape to stick my slab directly onto the machine bed. I started the machine, and it was promising until Dr. Wettergreen brought my attention to a couple of issues: I did not use a sacrificial piece of wood (which I am confident that no one did, evidenced by the partial destruction of the machine bed and the surprise of everyone who saw the sacrificial piece), and I set the Gcode to instruct the machine to make the contour cut before the pockets which would make the slab unstable.
2. I used a sacrificial piece of wood and double-sided tape between every two layers in contact. Despite the myriad of warnings not to leave the CNC machine while it is running, I decided to go to the restroom because “What is the worse that could happen in one minute?” I came back to a disappointed Dr. Wettergreen asking me where I had been.  The slab apparently detached from the sacrificial piece, and the machine produced a deafening grinding noise. As Dr. Wettergreen put it, everyone at the OEDK turned around to look at the CNC machine, only to find that it was unattended. I ONLY LEFT FOR ONE MINUTE TO GO TO THE RESTROOM! I learned my lesson the hard way, and I had to redo it.
3. I had to leave because someone else had the machine booked after my slot, so I was only able to return on the penultimate day of the semester. I was so caught up with finals that I had no other option. Fast-forward two weeks and I am at the CNC machine again, but this time, all the double-sided tape had run out. Moreover, the magnet that allowed the machine to operate while the lid was open had vanished. That is when I discovered that any piece of metal would suffice to allow the machine to operate, hence I used once of the machine’s wrenches to do so while I probed it. I also used copious amounts of duct tape to hold the pieces in place. However, on my third run, the tape was not enough, and the piece detached from the bed. I was swift at stopping it, but the piece was ruined.
4. I taped the slab from all sides, creating a network of tape nodes and edges that would hopefully keep it in place. Spoiler alert: it did not.
5. By this attempt, I had already exhausted my supply of pristine slabs. Since the woodshop was closed and there were no lab assistants in the middle of the night (for obvious reasons), I had to resort to using scraps from the basement. I applied even more tape, constructing the most intricate web of adhesives until the entire table supporting the machine moved whenever I tried to shake the wooden slab. It was extremely secure, but it was misaligned. I slightly tilted the slab relative to the x-axis such that the circular contour was slightly outside the slab, resulting in an incomplete piece.
6. I made sure that the slab was perfectly secure and perpendicular to the axes, and I ran the machine. I was looking through the glass for the entire duration of the run (20 min), and I had never been more anxious about the success of a run. Examining every minute movement of the slab, I watched it like a hawk to ensure it was stable. After a decade condensed into 20 min, it was done. I lifted the lid, but something was off. The contour line did not go through the entire thickness of the slab.
7. I used the same slab but modified the Gcode to only cut a deeper contour. It should have worked theoretically, but expectations do not match reality all the time. Nothing changed.
8. I increased the depth by another inch, but to no avail.
9. I modified the Gcode again but increased the depth by 3 in. I was desperate. BUT THAT DID NOTHING. HOW?!?!
10. I was willing to break the rules at this stage. I realized my illiteracy with Gcode, so I had to come up with something else. I thought about manually cutting the contour line with a saw, but I was too lazy. I came up with another idea: to simply alter the 0 of the z-axis such that it was below the top of the slab. That way, it would cut to the bottom. It was wacky, it was dangerous, and it was unpredictable, but I was close to giving up (as well as insane) that it seemed worth a shot. When I did so, the machine produced such a loud grinding noise that it sounded like a crying baby. I kid you not, it was like a baby wailing in the middle of the night. It was horrifying. The slab was still stable, so I did not stop it. My heart was palpitating. After one minute, I noticed the piece detach from the slab: the contour was fully cut! I immediately stopped the machine and picked up the slab with an immense sense of triumph.
11. I redid steps 6 and 10 to produce another piece. While waiting, I started sanding the first piece. It looked great! After 30 min, I was finally able to produce the second piece, which I swiftly sanded. I noticed a hole in the second layer of wood in the second piece which extended to one of the pockets, and there was nothing that I could have done about it. I was simply unlucky with the scrap of wood I had picked, but it did not have a pronounced effect on the final product as it was later partially concealed by paint.

Exhausted. Drained. Frustrated. And I was still not over. I had to stain or paint the pieces, which would normally spark a flame of accomplishment within me after completion, but I was simply vexed. I had lost so much time that I did not have enough of in the first place, and I was not getting any sleep. I used a blue stain for the sole reason that other colors were not available. In an hour, the project was complete and ready for submission.

I fought a war with that CNC machine. I literally cut my hand twice with the drill bit (followed by bleeding) because I was too frustrated with the situation to act in any sensible or safe manner. I almost broke the drill bit when I left it to go to the restroom.  It was utter chaos. Yes, I did submit the project at the end, but I did not feel victorious. A sense of dread loomed on me as I looked at the time and it was 6 AM. This could have been prevented by simply working on the project at an earlier time, but that simply was unfeasible to me because of my intolerable workload this semester. I felt many times that I was unable to exercise much creative freedom because I was always constrained by time, and this project felt painfully unsatisfactory to complete.

To wrap things up, it is time for my final MONEY TIMEEEEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤑

• For the wood, I do not know what type of wood it is, so I will assume a 6″ x 8″ x 1″ piece will have the same cost as 6″ x 8″ x 1″ unfinished wood, which is $4.35 – 4″ x 4″ x 0.7″ was used, giving $1.02
• Gloves + Paint + Brush are estimated to be $5
• 1 roll of duct tape costs $6.07 – an entire roll was used, giving $6.07
• Labor costs $10/hour – $10 were spend, giving $100

Final cost of a *single* piece: $56.05. I find it funny that the duct tape cost more than the actual wood and paint combined.

 

brianbishara