For my CNC project, I chose this cat from thenounproject.com. 

Then, I put it into Carbide Create. I made the head and body into pockets with depth 0.1 inches and the eyes into pockets with depth 0.125 inches, then added a contour line and 3 tabs around the outline.

When we tried cutting him out during the training/tutorial, he wasn’t secure enough, so he tilted close to the end of the contour cut and got messed up.

Then the next time I tried cutting him out, it almost started cutting the metal clamp because it was too close to the edge, so I stopped the cut and sized him down. One of the lab technicians told me it would be better to have more material around the edges to make sure the wood stays strong/secure enough during the contour cut, so I made sure to leave even more space.

Due to the size, the smaller details didn’t come out exactly as originally drawn in the file, but he’s still adorable. Once I had my twin cats cut out, I sanded them down a little to make them look cleaner. I didn’t sand them to be perfectly smooth though because I enjoyed the slightly rustic look. 

After that, I stained the wood and left it to dry overnight, then came back to mix and pour in some resin to add some more personality. Once the resin dried, I realized that some of it had seeped through the other side of one of my cats, so I sanded it off with the orbital sander and restained it.

Finally, my cats were complete!

Cost:

• 12×3.3×0.68 inch wood = $0.40
• ½ oz resin = $0.18
• ⅛ oz wood stain = $0.14
• Makerspace access = $50/month
• Labor: $7.25 * 4 = $29

Total cost = $79.72

And here are my clean workspaces!