Plan/Inspiration

My plan was to create a two bee coasters for my father who recently got his own beehive and since has become obsessed with them. I made a hexagon outline for the cut to make it resemble a honeycomb.

Process

I began the process by looking for a bee file on thenounproject.com. I ultimately chose the file based on how simple it was because I knew the bit size is large and the wood piece is small, so small details would not come out. I uploaded the file onto Carbide Create and created the outline of the shape.  I played around with which lines to engrave in order to get a design that looked good. I ended up leaving out certain lines in order to make the shape come out. Next, I securely taped down the wood and started the Nomad CNC machine. The wood was really uneven, so before the Nomad was able to cut all the way through it hit a less thick part of the wood causing the wood to unlatch from the bed. To fix this I used the band saw to finish cutting out the border shape. Then I post processed the wood using sand paper and I applied a semi-gloss coat to the wood. The gloss showcased the wood while making it look polished as show below.

The two finished products are shown below:

Reflection

I had a lot of fun creating this project. I feel like I learned a lot about a useful software (Carbide Create) and the CNC machine. If I could have done something different I would have spent the time to alter the bee file because one of finished products has a missing strip. This is because the lines of the file were too close together.

Cost

Semi-Gloss (bought on amazon.com) –> $14.97

Unfinshed craft wood plank (bought on  hobbylobby.com) –> $6.59

TOTAL: $21.56