CNC Router - Tumblr Posts

Finally got in to use the CNC router! I cut some fancy shelves to put on my desk and hold my stuff! They’re made out of 1/4″ birch plywood. This was basically my test piece for making furniture on the router, so now that I’ve got it partially worked out you may see more of this from me!

Oh, since I haven’t posted this tool to the internet before, here’s the brief rundown three different ways:

• It’s like a laser cutter but huge, and with a router instead of light.

• It’s a computer-controlled cutting machine for large sheet goods like plywood, particle board, acrylic etc. It traces lines like a plotter. Since it’s hard to make a simple saw cut curves in arbitrary materials, it uses a high-speed router bit (like a drill, but set up to push sideways through the material) to eat through the material.

• Plywood goes in, furniture comes out.

I originally put together the design for these shelves over a year ago, but then Everything Kept Happening All The Time and I didn’t manage to make it in to actually use the router for a long time.

Also, wow it’s cheap to use this router. I went to an artists’ shared work space near me called Artisans’ Asylum to do this. It’s like $25 to get in for the day, then it’s only $20 per hour of cutting time. This only took 25 minutes. (Their laser cutter, when it’s working, is $1 per minute of cutting. Compare that to $3 per minute at the place I used to work at, which is now out of business.) (Of course there’s the cost of the training on this machine to factor in, but it was almost a year ago so it doesn’t feel too immediate.)

Oooh man, I finally assembled two (TWO!) items of furniture I designed! The shelves I cut this last Monday. The lamp pieces have been sitting in a box since before Christmas.

I took progress photos of the assembly of both of these, and I’ll post them with an in-depth write-up later. But for now, enjoy this final photo!

One point for everything you can identify on the shelves.