This CNC project was actually the second time I had to CNC something after I had already done my chess piece CNC project. Therefore I had to source some wood and just elected to use one of the panels on my box from the beginning of the course. The worked out in multiple ways as the wood already had a finish on it and was big enough to cut two small circular shields.

To begin, I picked a simple yet aesthetically pleasing design from the Carbide library. This design was simple and the simulations showed that I could use the 1/8″ bit to cut all the grooves. Before selecting the shape, I did the initialization of measuring my wood and putting those dimensions in. I then laid out two shields on my workpiece, calibrated the CNC machine and made the cut. I used the CNC machine in the OEDK basement. The result can be seen below:

Overall, this process was fairly easy and only took around 2 hrs to complete. The main issue I had was finding a design in the library that was aesthetically pleasing and contained lines wide enough to make pocket cuts with the 1/8″ bit. I was able to do the calibration and all the other steps smoothly. The cost break down would be as follows:

wood : ~$1

Time: ~$20

CNC Machine: ~$2300

Overall cost to make these totals around $2321, without the machine it is only around $21.