✅ c7: CNC

For this week, the main goal was to learn to use the CNC machine. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control, is a subtractive computer aided machining process that allows the user to cut from a piece of material any desired carving or shape (with some exceptions taking into consideration the orientation of the blade and the laws of gravity as well as the properties of the material being milled).

As usual, we went over the history of the CNC machining, the properties that set it apart from other milling and CAM tools, and the anatomy of the machine itself. And finally, we saw some examples and guidelines to follow when designing to mill on the CNC, what file formats should be used, etc…

For this task, I present a few projects I have did with the CNC machine:

(1) I have used the CNC to make a 2-piece bowl presser mold for our biomaterials recipe. Here, I designed the bowl on Fusion but it was a mess to generate the g-code as I had to transfer the model to .stl and then upload it on Rhino and then make a g-code. And unfortunately, the design was an open mesh so the CNC made the shape and destroyed it which forced me to re-peat the process, by gluing the wood pieces together and preparing the file again and running it over in the CNC machine.

(2) I chose to make a wooden mold using the CNC milling, as I had already used silicone previously. And as part of my project around domestic circularity and recycling, I decided to melt HDPE plastic cups into lego blocks at home. Below are some images of this process. Here, as it is in 2.5D, I did the design on Illustrator and later uploaded the .dxf files to easel and specified the hole types and depths.