Scott Wald Project 4: Desktop CNC

 Process:


At the start, I created an STL file of the Island that I wanted to create. A lot of problems rose once I put the file into Fusion because of the amount of triangles that the file contained. This made fusion very slow and it crashed frequently during the creation process. The process involved getting rid of smaller islands next to Orcas island. I did this by creating abstract shaped sketches to extrude and get rid of unwanted parts. Then I created a Rectangular sketch around the island and extruded it up and down to make the plaque. After this, creating the adaptive drill paths initially took a long time to load because of the letters, but after realizing that the letters would not be possible to cut on the CNC, I decided to just take them off and I will have to laser engrave at a later time. Overall, the CNC took about an hour and a half to cut the plaque out. 

Result:

One solution Ryan introduced to me to help with the computer being overloaded with the large STL file was to reduce the number of triangles. This worked for a bit, but at the heart of it I was just importing STL files that were too big from the STL conversion website. Because of this I tweaked the settings in the website to decrease the mm height that the website added to islands from the sea level. This significantly decreased the number of overly small triangles forming around the perimeter of every island. Also, I mentioned the abstract sketch in the section above because Fusion would not let me select and delete bodies like it normally does, so abstract sketches had to do. Additionally, the STL included the sea and the ground below it, so I had to meticulously locate where the sea level = 0 to cut away unwanted material. Also, using a large drill bit actually saved time and allowed for a rather clean look on the landscape. 




Reflection

Originally, I wanted the topographical plaque but with the roads from google maps engraved on it. This exploratory process turned out to be more difficult than I anticipate, so I decided to just go with the topographical map. Also, the stepover of the adaptive clearing was low so it left the sea looking VERY wavy. Another issue with the cutting was that I had the Y axis set in the wrong direction, so it ran through a nail that was holding the board down. Luckily the nail was the piece of metal that did not survive the incident, and the drill bit was perfectly fine. After the CNC cut the plaque, it did not go deep enough to free the plaque, so I used a chisel to weaken the support to the plank. After this I went in with a jigsaw and sanded down the rough bits. I think that it still needs a bit more sanding and needs to be engraved as well as outlined in the island, but I think it was a neat project to do. 





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