The goal of this project was to CNC 2 pieces of wood and post process them so that they appear the same. To start, I first measured the thickness of the wood and setup the Carbide Create software. I found a red panda from the noun project and saved it from the Noun Project as a SVG.

 

After sizing the wood, I setup the cnc to the instructions given in the document. I did struggle a bit here because some the instructions seemed wrong, or just did not work for my piece possibly because of its shape. For example, for the outside contour cut, my offset direction was outside, not inside. After setting up that contour, I wanted to work on the interior cuts. Here, for whatever reason, the pocket cuts were not working when I attempted to visualize the cut. After talking to some lab technicians, they mentioned that I should just use a contour cut and set up the depth instead to 1/8 inch.

With the tabs and cuts setup, I was ready to cut. I used the Nomad machine and setup my wood using the jig and double sided tape with the sacrificial wood, which was pretty convenient. I initialized the machine and probed the corner, which was pretty straightforward for me since I had used the machine before. I started the cut and the cut came out smooth for the first red panda. With the second cutout though, the wood was not the same uniform thickness all the way around so I had to use a drill bit and sand paper to finish a bit of the cut to go all the way through the wood.

After this, I post processed the wood with the orbital sander, sandpaper, and then stained it with some golden oak stain and let it dry.

   

 

Cost Analysis:

2  5″x3″ wood: $6

Wood Stain: $12

CNC Machinist salary + Machine time: $23/hr  * 2 hr

$64 Total