Beck's AUArts Blog

Most of the work I did this week was setting up the CNC machine. Quite a few of the settings required quite a bit of tinkering. Results: I found that one of the kerfs broke upon bending. I also found that the bend was not that gradual, and this may be an issue of size (being such a small model/test piece) Moving forward, something I want to try is switching to bending using a straight lattice hinge (sometimes also referred to as a "living hinge"): I did briefly look at other types of lattice patterns, but I found that since I am only trying to bend in one direction, this may prove to be the most sturdy for what I am doing. Typically, these are done using a laser cutter and I am thinking that with how my progress is currently going, I may want to switch to doing this project entirely with the laser cutter instead of going larger scale. It was a bit of an ambitious project in the first place, but I have also noticed that most of the items I wanted a place to store in the first ...

For cutting out the shapes, my plan is to use the laser cutter and for the kerfs, I will use the small 8" x 8" cnc machine in the thing tank.

Design updates from last model: I decided that the horns and scales of the dragon should just be part of the backing to simplify the process of adding those attachments. I figured that there will be some waste due to the odd shape of the backing anyways and that it would use up less material than trying to bend those curves considering it is not meant to be usable shelf space. The outlines are caused by an engraving in the center parts of the horns and the center of the back spikes. (The outline was offset and then engraved about 1/3 of the material deep.) Note: the color here is just for display purposes because I found that using the "white paint" didn't provide enough contrast between background and object I was thinking of making a 1/3 scale mock-up using cheap 1/4in plywood. Before I buy it. I want to check out the size of the small scale CNC machine in the thing tank so I know the dimensions I would need to cut a large sheet into. (If I buy my supplies at home depot...