Board to be wild

This unit was about learning how to use the CNC machines in our lab, deep engraving, and pouring resin.  We also learned how to machine wood. Learning how to correctly get the wood down to size. This was a primarily woodworking unit, and caused us to think about how to bring out the best properties in our wood. We had to learn how to sand, down our boards to become smooth as possible. As well as using the jointer and drum sander to make the board flat to begin with. 


This is my board, with the dimensions I had before jointing and drum sanding the board.  On this slide it also speaks on measuring twice and cutting once, which is a way to make sure the cut is accurate the first time. After I had cut the board, the dimensions were 12 inches wide, 8.875 inches long, and 1.125 inches deep. 

This was an rough sketch of what I wanted my board to look like. This was supposed to originally be the chicago river, but later I changed my mind, and made it apart of the Skittles logo.  This was significant to me becuase I would regularly see it when I was younger and went to go visit my grandparents. 

This is an image of me prepping some wood, I used the drum sander and not the planar, which smoothed out the top as well as removed the warpage.  The jointer was also used, and was used to to the same thing, but for the sides of the board to smooth them and remove any warpage. 

This was a 3D design file for the board I made in fusion360, and was what I used to export it into aspire. The issue with this design however was that I couldn't use it since I am unable to cut the edge of the board due to the clamps we used on the board. 

This is the workflow for the CNC machine, it describes both how to operate the CNC machine, and also how to set it up.  This was derived from both some of my personal experience, which can be seen on my fab academy page above, as well as some videos shared with me by Mrs. Morrow. 

This is an image of my aspire toolpath. To create this, I used a pocket toolpath, which cut the outline of the lake, This didn't turn out how I wanted it to, because the toolpath had to be offset from the end of the board, which this wasn't.  After I had it setup, I milled my board and it was done. 

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Video of the board milling

After milling, this was what my board looked like, except this image was taken after laser engraving, which is why it looks weird. It should still look like it did before.  just slightly off becuase the grain was drawn in.  I had to sand down the inside because it was still rough, but afterwards it became smooth and looked nice. 

This was the final laser cut image, with the skittles logo and slogan. It came out fairly well, though there were some weird blemished in the bottom of the skittles logo, but they didn't affect the final project too much. All I did was take the same outline I used for the aspire file, and added it into Corel draw then used the bitmap trace on the skittles logo, and added the text for the slogan. 

This is the finished board with the resin poured. We mixed together half of part a and half of part b along with some red pigment. After mixing the resin, I poured it, and Mrs. Morrow popped the bubbles with a blowtorch.  Once all the resin had dried, I sanded it, wet the board, then  sanded again. Once it was sanded, I oiled the board, and left it to dry for 24 hours, and this was the final product. 

Overall, the only problem I encountered was having to change what my board would look like because my first Idea wouldn't have worked, I then pivoted to the skittles idea, and then it looked nice.