All,
Here’s my recap of CNC Demo Day & some pictures from the December CNC SIG Meeting.
First of all, CNC Demo Day went spectacularly well! The turnout was amazing at around 25 people! What a wonderful way to end 2023. @TravisGood went over the basics of inlays and marquetry while @jamesfreeman described the Mozaik software and jig work. Remember, Demo Day is used to gauge interest in what you guys want to see more of. In this email I will describe some of Demo Day as well as share some pictures of at the last some amazing art from our last CNC SIG event.
In particular, at Demo Day, we discussed the following:
Inlays
- Inlays are created by layering one type of wood into another (example shown).
- Inlays can be created using vCarve (and other softwares) where the technique allows for a small gap at the bottom of the inlay so glue can be poured in to allow for the two pieces to connect and hold.
- Pieces can later be separated using a bandsaw. After which, sanding & finishing will allow for a smooth finish.
Marquetry
- Marquetry involves cutting thin pieces of wood (veneer) and layering them together to create elaborate mosaics of art (example shown below).
- This primarily involves laser cutting and using a technique to take into account the width of the laser doing the cutting, also called kerf.
- By taking kerf into account, and using different colored veneers, you can create tight-fitting works of art that are as easy to put together as a jigsaw puzzle!
Mozaik
- Mozaik is a furniture-designing software that provides an in-depth analysis for how to design anything furniture-related.
- There is a blow-out feature that easily shows you the interior of a cabinet and how its components connect.
- We have Mozaik, which is an otherwise expensive software (I see the CNC version of Mozaik at $150/month) at two of our computers at Asmbly, to be used (for free) by you! Please take advantage of it and share with us what you learn.
Jigs/Dog Holes
- Jigs and tools used to align a work piece were the last bit of discussion on Demo Day.
- The main emphasis was dog holes, which are circular pieces of metal that slide into holes on the spoilboard.
- These dog holes allow you to align your work piece to its exact specifications. This is especially helpful for two-sided milling, or if you need to remove your workpiece for a time and return for some milling at a later date.
As a reminder, we passed a sign-up sheet around to everyone for them to convey interest in each of these topics. If you didn’t get a chance to put your name in the hat for what you’re interested in, reply to the this post and let us know!
December CNC SIG
Here’s some of the photos from our Show-And-Tell last week (see below). Also, as a reminder, James pointed us toward https://spiralbetty.com/ as a way to create those incredible spiral images you can see in the attached photos.
@SteveW’s Grinch:
@CLeininger’s Squirrel:
![CNC SIG - Charles Displaying a Squirrel.HEIC|375x500]
(upload://1JsGGj3U0b0x3S5jxDVAdT7s5bM.jpeg)
@BillOrner’s Cut-Out:
@bwatt’s Joinery
@jamesfreeman’s Puppy & Spiral Betty Magic
@TravisGood’s Marilyn Monroe Marquetry:
Thank you to all for making these events fun, informative, and inspiring. Looking forward to seeing what everyone’s making this year, and the next, which isn’t too far off!
