April CNC Recap & Highlights!
It was a great time to be alive, and the day before the eclipse! Unfortunately, I was unable to make it, but I watched some of the recording located here for others who would like to see the April CNC SIG in all its splendor: April CNC SIG.mp4 - Google Drive
@jamesfreeman made a cabinet with @bwatt using Moziak. Seems pretty cool!
@SteveW made the Austin emblem for his son and the epoxy river. Above is a shot of some of the other pieces made by our fellow CNCers.
Travis gave me a detailed breakdown on what he put together–thank you Travis!
@TravisGood made a goofy variation on the Sorting Hat used with new students entering Hogwarts School. Simply, it’s a die which when rolled dictates your House: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin. The other two sides are Roll Again and Acceptance Rescinded!
It’s a crazy little project that started with two end mills he owns but hadn’t used: MC Etcher (120 & 90). Metal coins seemed a reasonable material to work with in his Nomad 883 so he devised a fixture to etch them. After a few fun coins he decided to use some coins in my project for the SIG. Since I couldn’t get a Sorting Hat delivered in time for the meeting, he had to choose an alternate sorting technique and to mount it on a plaque with embedded coins. The max cut volume of his condo CNC is 8x8x3 hence the whole plaque is only 8" tall. The die is cut from Blue Mahoe and the sides are laser engraved. The die connects to the plaque with a magnet.
This was pretty much plagiarized from what Travis sent me, so thank you for contributing to the recap!
And at the end, @SteveW shared with us some tips and tricks about vCarve. Specifically, if you press “I” then you can insert a node into your drawing and further manipulate it. There were many other tips he suggested. I’d recommend taking a look at his work starting around an hour and 45 minutes into the recording. It’s good stuff.
vCarve did release version 12, and the makerspace version will be coming out pretty quick. We expect to make upgrades to this version soon!
Next month is Mother’s Day themed, so make something wonderful for the moms! Or not–it’s up to you! 
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next CNC event at 9am at Asmbly on May 5th!
Joaquim
