CNC Toucan | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

This week, we were tasked with creating a wooden object using the CNC machine.

I started out on thenounproject.com to obtain a shape. I spent around half an hour considering all the options, and decided to go for a tou can, taking into account how the shape could probably stand up, and the outlines could be filled with colored resin.

toucan

I imported the SVG file into Carbide Create, making a pocket for the general shape, a deeper contour pocket for the outlines, and a countour cut for an offset outline

I took this file to the TA CNC tutorial session, and after a few adjustments to the depths, stock size, and tooling used, we let the CNC run.

Although I had used the largest value I could find when measuring the stock depth, the CNC contour cut didn’t carve all the way through the wood. I cleaned the sawdust off the piece and kept it.

imperfect contour cut

For the next piece, I added 0.05” to the measured stock depth, which did end up working nicely at the cost of the thin sacrificial wood.

Both pieces had very rough edges, so I used an orbital sander to clean up the back, and used higher grit sandpaper to clean the splinters off of the cuts. For extra post processing, I decided to wipe both pieces down with tung oil, applying two coats 24 hours apart. This gave it a small glossiness and made the color richer.

post processed objects

Both pieces were looking quite clean, so I was debating whether or not I should add resin. A friend from my EDES class convinced me to, so I decided to add a two color resin: black for the body/feathers, and orage for the beak and feet. I applied these drop by drop using a very small popsicle stick.

The resin work wasn’t perfect, but I found it to be quite cleanly done, and both colors had nice separation, despite being adjacent to each other. I set the two pieces at the table to dry and came back after 24 hours.

Unfortunately while drying, there was a lot of leakage between the two colors in general, which was slightly disappointing. Despite this, I found the overall project to be very enjoyable, and I was super tempted to make a third toucan for fun.

Cost

Wood ($2.72 for 4 ft at 1 ft used): $0.68
Resin ($59.99 for 256 oz at 2 oz used): $0.47
Tung Oil ($113.12 for 128 oz at 5 oz used): $4.42
Labor ($10/hr at 6 hours) $60

Total: $65.57, or $32.79 per object, not super expensive I suppose.

Cleaned workspace