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This week we were tasked to make something big. We each had access to a sheet of OSB and the ShopBot CNC router. My roommate and I have this super tall closet. Because we stand at 4'11" and 5'4" respectively, we both struggle to reach the top level of the closet. I decided I wanted to make a stool for us to easily reach the top. Right now, a trend on tiktok is to make hand-tufted puzzle shaped rugs that fit together like puzzle pieces. So, my inspiration was to make two stools that were puzzle shaped and could fit together in various formations.
However, after some fiascos involving a strained foot + a fried laptop, I had only made one puzzle stool rather than the two I had hoped for. Halfway through the week my waterbottle leaked inside my backpack and my laptop got completely fried. I had to bring it to the Apple store. Thankfully, I had already done my CAD for this week and machined one of my stools, so it didn't really affect my project.
The other different thing I had to do this week was CAD dogbones into my parts. To do this, I used a script that someone else had made to [dogbone CNC parts](https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/4150/dogbone-and-corner-overcut-features-for-cnc-router-design). This made dogboning all my corners super quick and easy!
<figure><img src="../images/full/06/cad.jpeg" width="500"/>
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## Making Machine Code
Once I had my CAD, I had to convert it to machine code using the SC's computer that had Aspire installed. I followed Joon's super helpful Aspire tutorial, but ran into an issue. To put all of my pieces on the same plane, I had imported all the separate part DXFs into one large sketch. Then, inside my CAD sketch, my lines were not actually joined, so Aspire was unable to recognize the toolpath as continuous. To fix this, Nathan helped me join all my lines in Rhino (since the shop laptop was being used, so he just used his personal computer's Rhino program).
Per Joon's tutorial, I created two toolpaths. One was for the internal pressfit holes, and the other was for the shape outline. The first toolpath was the internal holes, which used the Inside/Left machine vectors. The second toolpath was the shape outline, which used the Outside/Right machine vectors. The only other difference was that the second toolpath included tabs (which you can use the Aspire software to make).
toolpath | tabs |
:---------------:|:---------------:
 | 
After creating my two toolpaths and uploading it to a USB stick, I was ready to machine!
## Fabricating
Joon helped me machine my part. For the most part, it was chill going. However, we did meet a few quick issues. I used the shop-given OSB to make my part. I nailed the OSB to the board using rubber nails and the nail gun. I generally eye-balled the placement of the OSB, since my part only took up about a 30 x 30 chunk of the OSB (so I didn't have to be super precise). Turns out, this was a close call.
After zeroing everything, loading in our program, and adjusting the spindle speed, we were ready to go! At first, we were scared that the collet would hit the surface of the plywood, since it looked like it was super close to hitting the surface of the plywood. However, after carefully keeping an eye on things and hovering over the space bar to pause, we realized the spindle height was just high enough to not hit the surface of the OSB. Yay!
<figure><img src="../images/full/06/close_collett.jpeg" width="500"/>
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Then, I realized that we had nailed the OSB a little too close to the edge. This meant that our x direction was a little off, so the bit went off the OSB when drawing the edge of the press-fit tabs. However, it was just barely off since we could still hear the bit scraping against the edge of the OSB. Given that it was barely off and this was the press-fit tab, I wasn't too worried about things not working out and we continued machining.
Mid machining, one of the chunks of OSB fell off of the edge of the bed and landed on the machine platform under the bed. Somehow, the bed got caught on the chunk of OSB and we had to pause the machine to remove the excess OSB. Then, we forgot to start the spindle before resuming the path of the machine, so we broke a bit. After replacing and rezeroing everything, we started the gcode at the previous line it had stopped, so we didn't have to sit and rewatch all of the machining.
Eventually, we were able to go through all of this and successfully machine everything! All my parts came out great :)
## Assembly
I took all the individual parts and sanded them down.
<figure><img src="../images/full/06/sanding.jpeg" width="500"/>
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Upon assembling, I realized I didn't add enough tolerance to my press it joints. To fix this, I just took a file and filed down all of the press-fit tabs a bit so then I could wiggle them in. I also used a hammer hammer all the joints together, since I didn't want there to be enough room for the stool to wiggle when we stood on it. Eventually, all the pieces were able to come together to make a sweet stool!
<figure><img src="../images/full/06/final.jpeg" width="500"/>
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