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.

Thursday, 18 July 2013

8X the Fun!

I finally got away from the computer for a while yesterday, and was able to start cutting the mechanical tentacles for our competition entry.
A little hard to see white, on white, but the cutting went well
By the last linkage of the tentacle, the parts are getting a little small!

I just did up a parts count for the tentacles. There are, including spacers, 10 individual pieces per link. There are 10 links per tentacle, times 8 tentacles!
That's a total of 800 pcs. PLUS I still have to design the tentacle mount to the body, Probably another 80 pcs for those.

Stoooooopid Jamie says "Let's build an octopus"..........Pffff!..........Stoopid Jamie.

BUT.....I think it will be WAAY cool when it's done:)

However, during assembly, it seems I forgot to trim the tabs of the side in the computer file, so I ended up having to do that with the table saw after. It wasn't too bad, as I could run the brass rod through the holes, and cut 8 of them at a time.



The assembly was pretty fast, and everything ended up working out, except for the aforementioned trimming mistake. Each one of the pulley's will get a belt that connects to the next one down the line, with the big and small pulley's alternating one side to the other.

7 more to go!

8)
JWO








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  1. Doug Haffner22 July 2013 at 15:33

    I would like to aroma the bouquets, but all I see is octopus parts. I tried to glance at the wind on my own cheek, but saw only stubble and the sound of crunchy doritos. I'm glad I didn't go with my initial plan to do an Octo...your's is way cooler already. Yummy PVC is like warm nachos in my fanny pack. Genuine nachos. In my fanny pack.

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