Work Progress

For this week, we were supposed to make something Big and start as early as possible due to the limitation usage time (per person) of the busy CNC machine. I decided to make a 1:50 model of one of my previous architecture projects about Scherk’s Singly Periodic Surface by using the waffle press-fit structure. I didn’t expect the model to be super beautiful because of OSB’s rough quality, but I believe that the huge scale will give me a more intuitive sense of the space.
Precedent:

Design and Arrangement:

Test:
For the test assignment, I paired up with Morgan and Marianna. We are going to test runout, alignment, speeds, feeds, and toolpaths for the machine. A group of us split a 4’x8’ OSB testing piece into four sections and I decided to cut a smaller prototype of the final deliveries. I also tested the press-fit joint dimension and onion skin settings for OSB with a 1/4’’ Flat End Mill. In the mastercamm file, We set the bottom of cut to 0.005'' rather than 0 to test the onion cut and also used 1/8'' stepdown to make a finer edge.
Please find the Mastercamm tutorial I used here.

The following is the process of how we set the router machine and cutting bed:

Place Material on the CNC bed and load the file in the machine

Turn on the Vacuum table. Note: if the material is not flat, press its edge and then turn on the vacuum will solve the problem.

Routing

Cleaning

Peel the pieces off

The press-fit joint fit each other quite well as you can see in the image. The dimension setting I used is 0.4675''. However, failure occurred when the router were cutting a small piece of complex outlines.



However, although test went smoothly, everything changed when it comes to a final cut. It's definetly a trap:(. I used the same settings for stepdown and onion skin, but this time, the onion skin is much much thicker! I have to use knives to help peel things off, Soooo exhausted! I also had a hard time cleaning the rough peeled edge of my curved pieces.