When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Shelfing some jobs

The boring-ness of cncing cardboard stencils on our Techno was broken up today when I was able to spare a bit of time to work on the shelves for the new office. They aren't overly fancy, but they'll be cool nonetheless!
They'll match the new desk in terms of style, which will keep the theme going.
The 3 shelves are basically a half octogon. I originally wanted them to be hidden mounted, so just the shelf stood out with no supports, but as things moved forward, I decided I would need an under-support. I think this calls for some sort of hydraulic cylinder! I always have some mixed pipe kicking around the shop, so I employed it. I drew the caps and end mounts up in Aspire, and toolpathed them out to the Techno. In 3 minutes I had all the parts to start the assembly. The cylinders will be made entirely from abs and pvc plastics.
The mounts that hold the cylinders were also cut from 1/2" pvc, with the mounting plates cut from MDF. Everything was screwed and glued so there would be no "shelf malfunctions"!
Because the parts were all drawn in Aspire, and precisely machined on our Techno, the whole assembly snapped together in seconds. In fact, it all fit so well, there was barely any room for gluing.

The excitement quickly waned as I loaded up the next set of stencils to be cut. Soon we'll be done these things, after a while, they all start to look the same :)

We got a call today for an interesting gig. They want a companies logo carved into a potatoe for a print campaign. They asked if we would make it from another material and paint it to look like a potatoe, but it's always better if you can use the real thing.
So stay tuned, you may get to see first hand, Oxenham Design 3D machining a potatoe on our Techno cnc.
If you can't cut it with a Techno, you can't cut it!
8)
JO


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