Brechin Project 4: CNC Cutter

 Process

    Like the rest of the projects so far this project started with a tutorial. Realizing I could use any landscape for the practice I specifically chose the Davis Mountains near the Macdonald Observatory and for a range, in the landscape, I also chose an angle near a river. Following the tutorial, I decided that this would be my final build for this project with some differences(more on those towards the end of this section).

    On the first day, I chose my location and was following the tutorial. However, because of my choice of location, I had a hard time making the design fit the height parameters so I asked Ryan and Austin for help. We were able to make it fit the height requirements but it took a lot of adjustments to get the software to a point where it wouldn't crash every few steps of my trying to work with it. By the time I left for spring break, I was actually happy with the design and my cardholder.

    Over spring break and the first week back, I started brainstorming my final project and what tools I wanted to use. I reflected back on my experiences with the current tools we learned and realized that I really loved using the laser cutter and loved the possibilities for landscape representation that the CNC was presenting for me. Because of this, I decided on a multi-piece fantasy world board for a gaming system I was learning. So when I entered class today, I came with the intent of testing out the CNC router and its potential for my Final project concept. So I went through and finished the tutorial videos and used the CNC router for my design.

    I found the CNC router not only met my expectations but exceeds my hopes for the possibilities I could use this tool for. The design itself was actually fairly quick to get cut out of the board, and it was also fairly simple to sand down some of the rough edges from when I pulled it out of the board. Overall this design and build were actually one of the easier ones of projects we had done so far, and because of this, I decided that this would be the one I turned in.

    However, I didn't want to turn in just the card holder, despite how proud and happy I was with the design. So I decided to add a card to go in the cardholder that I would laser cut out and turn in with the cardholder itself. I originally started the process in Fusion 360 since that was how we started project two, but I started having difficulty with turning the design into a sketch to export out of Fusion. I called Dr. Terrel over to get help with this portion of the design and he helped me realize I could just make the entire thing in Adobe Illustrator instead of doing Fusion first. So that is what I did and while I played around with a couple of cool graphic design elements (shown below), I decided to just have my name and my potential career path on the card.

Results

    Overall, I am really happy with the results of this project. This was by far the most simple project for me to complete, but the potential for this tool in future projects makes me really excited.

Reflection

    The reason I decided to keep with the tutorial design instead of making an entirely different project is so that I can start working on the terrain design for my Final Project. Since that one is going to be multiple different terrains that will be placed together to make a comprehensive world map, I wanted to use this project as my test for future projects. I can't wait to start designing my next project and I am looking forward to sharing my Final Project design here!