For this project, I decided to CNC machine fossils, inspired by Animal Crossing.

First, I found a good svg file on thenounproject.com, and put it onto Carbide Create. To mill the details on the fossil, I used a 1/16 inch end mill because the lines were pretty thin and the 1/8 inch looked too rough in the preview. I drilled 0.1 inch depth. To cut out the fossil, I used a 1/8 inch end mill and used two tabs each to keep them in place.

I also drilled both on one piece of wood to save space. The wood I had had an edge that was kind of jagged, as pictured below, but I thought that could add some depth to the fossil, so I just cut on it. This led to an issue with the zeroing of the machine because there was no corner that the BitZero could align on, but I just put the BitZero on the top left corner and did some math to get it to zero at the bottom left.

 

Here is a fun little time lapse of the CNC process:IMG_3448

After it was done, I peeled off the tape and broke off the tabs. Here is what it looked like:

Then, I took them to the basement sanded them with increasing grits of sand paper. There was a little bit of the tabs left on the side of the fossils, so I used the belt sander to get it off. Here they are after sanding:

Lastly, I went outside and clear coated them and left them out to dry to get a nice finish.

Cost Analysis:

Wood: one 3×6 block ~ $1

Tape and clear coat: negligible

Labor: 2 hours x $15 = $30

Total: $31