The first step for this project was to figure out what I wanted to make. The guidelines for the project were you had to make a sign with letters that would hold itself together and be one piece. My first thought was Star Wars so I began drawing out the words and some lightsabers to hold the bottom together.

To cut through wood this thick we used a CNC, which uses a drill bit to cut the lines you tell it to. It uses multiple bits for different size pockets and is very easy to set up while using Fusion 360. this leads me to my next step Fusion.

Once the outline was in fusion 360 I extruded it .5 inches which was the height of the wood I was cutting, this allowed me to show how deep I needed to cut. I then made a second body which was the size of the wood I was cutting out of, 6.5" by 12.5", I then looked like the picture does where the bodies were layered and it was one piece with the design on the top.

Once it was placed in Fusion I had to make cut paths showing where the CNC machine had to cut. This was easy because of how Fusion works, I first selected the pockets I wanted cut then selected the bit I wanted to be used. This bit was found in the Dawson bit library which was updated for what the machine had. I used a 1/8 inches bit first clearing all material leaving .04 inches of wood next to the line then I used the same bit to go back and cut down to the line using a contour. I then cut the outside edge with a ¼ inch bit again leaving .04 wood on the outside later going back around with a ⅛ inch bit cutting down to the line. On the CNC you can only cut half of the length of the bit on each pass to not break the bit so it took a few passes to get through all the material.