How to Make Something Big
Workflow
Design
This week we were tasked to make something big using the CNC machine at N51. During the group project we ran several tutorials understanding how to set up MasterCAM and run the large CNC machine. Essentially, I surmised that this week’s task ran on the same principles as the laser cutting week. We needed to take into account how the parts in our design were going to it together. Defining the depth of the timber panels was also going to be intrinsic to the successful assemblage of the final product.
Initially I wanted to make a small children bicycle for adults. I wanted to prototype this in a group with Sergio. We eventually decided to go into this week as individual projects. I changed focus and wanted to make a large flip phone which I could use as a lap-laptop workspace. I ran some ideas in my head and in my sketchbook. It was going to be too much effort for a single weeks work. I decided to adapt the design to become even more useless.
I was inspired by an old rotary phone which we had at our house, the retro revival movement in handheld technology, the rise of the dumb phone and those old tin can -string communication prototype – I decided to make a massive performative cellphone cover in the shape of an old rotary phone.
I started by finding a 3D model online. My preferred site is SketchFAB (it offers quite a substantial and easy to use library of 3D objects to download and use). Initially my plan was to start by scaling the phone model and then drawing the panels at appropriate intervals so that it could be booleaned.
After a few attempts, I decided to Boolean the phone and the panels first, and individually export them after they have been cut and boolened. Essentially the panels would be made and cut to account for the slots, then the exterior Boolean would be made. This would significantly speed up the proceedings and meant that I didn’t have to calculate the slits in the panels post Boolean.
To make sure I didn’t make any unnecessary mistakes, I labeled each panel and generated a grid layout showing each joint as a consequence of its column and row. I placed the extracted panel sizings on a 4ft x 8ft block to see if the required number of panels need resizing or more efficient placement. Jen helped me with this step and suggested a thicker onion skin underneath the more fragile and smaller pieces.
One of the interesting and more challenging differences which this week has over the laser cutting week is that each batch and type of timber has different challenges. For example hardwood takes longer to mill but is stronger than composite materials like OSB (Oriented strand board). OSB is much cheaper than hardwood and depending on the needs of the project you might not need to spend much money on more expensive materials.
