Welcome to the first monthly installment of Tuesday Tutorial! The first Tuesday of every month, we’ll bring you a new project idea that can easily be incorporated in your curriculum.
The projects will vary in difficulty and will utilize a wide variety of the technologies and tools we have on hand. Most importantly, it gives us a chance to flex our creative muscles and find new applications for the educational technologies we believe in.
With Valentine’s Day only a couple weeks away, we figured we’d kick things off with a little heart-themed project suited for the occasion.
What you’ll need:
- Denford MRC 40, Compact 1000 Pro, 6600/6600 Pro Router, or 2600 Pro Router (we used the Denford 2600 Pro Router)
- Denford QuickCAM 2D Design with VCarve software
- SolidWorks Education Edition software
- Two 1’ x 1’ sheets of ¾-inch plywood
Estimated project time: 2-4 hours from design to finish
The Design Process
Design your heart-shaped box using SolidWorks Education Edition design software. Your design should consist of two pieces – the top and the bottom of the box.
Feel free to design the shape at whatever size you desire, but be sure to create an assembly out of the pieces and design the mating surfaces in the context of the assembly to ensure a perfect fit. (Hint: Do not insert text for the top of the box until you have exported your final drawing into the Denford QuickCAM 2D Design software.)
If you’d like to take advantage of the design we already created, feel free to download the SolidWorks files we developed, which include three files: the top piece, the bottom piece and the assembly file that shows how to put both pieces together.
Download SolidWorks Heart Box Assembly files.
The CAM Process
After you’ve completed your design, export each side as a 2D drawing and import each slide into Denford’s QuickCAM 2D Design software.
Generate toolpaths from the geometry of your heart shapes. QuickCAM 2D will then generate the G-Code from these toolpaths and export them to the 2600 Pro’s control software, VR Milling.
Use the QuickCAM V-Carve capabilities for whatever custom text you have planned for the top of your box (we chose “Wood You Be My Valentine?”) The great thing about the new V-Carve capability is that it allows shapes and text to be machined at the correct width by automatically controlling the depth of cut of the V cutter, which makes for clean, easy text engraving.
Want to check your QuickCAM 2D files against ours? Feel free to download our two files – the top and bottom pieces, which are processed and ready to go in QuickCAM2D with vCarve. (Note: you cannot open these files unless you own the version of the software with vCarve.)
Download QuickCAM 2D heart box files.
The CNC Process
Insert one of your 1’ x 1’ pieces of plywood into the clamp, set up the tools in the machine, and set the tool offsets. In this case, we used two tools – a ½” end mill cutter and 1/8” end mill cutter – to produce the two sides.
Set your work offset (starting point) and click start. Once finished, you’ll likely need to sand down the edges for a clean, smooth finish.
And there you have it! A completely customizable gift you can fill with chocolates and candies before sharing with that special someone come Valentine’s Day.
