CNC Milling

For this weeks assignment, we were suppose to create a 2d pattern and get it cut out or engraved on PCB using the mill in the studio. Bella and I worked together on this assignment to hopefully put our heads together and figure out how to do it. Going into this assignment, we thought it would only take us 30 minutes (which it probably should have) but instead it took us a good 3 hours to figure out how everything works.

Initially, I wanted to cut out my logo using the mill. But for some reason, everytime I uploaded my logo file into the Bantam software it wouldn’t look like my original file. After trying to trouble shoot it and adjust my AI file to get my logo to look correct on Bantam, I finally decided that I was going to do a different design. I chose to do a simple heart icon that I found on the Noun Project website. I chose to go with this simple design so I could focus on figuring out how to work the machine and software down without worrying about specific design malfunctions. I’m glad I went with this course of action because as soon as I uploaded this file, everything looked normal and how I wanted it to be.

Since we had it all set up, we prompted the mill to start cutting. The next problem we ran into was that we had thought that we centered the mill but it started out by cutting the design with half of it off. We then restarted and made sure it was centered. Then our next problem was that once we got it centered and we told the machine to start cutting, the cutting tool wasnt touching the material so nothing was happening. Bella and I spent forever trying to adjust the settings on the software to get the tool to touch the material and actually cut. After about an hour, I finally realized that it might be because the tool was dull because it looked different then the tools that hadnt been used yet. So we switched out the tool and solved the problem. You could say there was a lot of trial and error but we ultimately got it to work and make a fun little heart shaped icon. My heart shaped icon kind of reminds me of the Southwest Airlines heart, which I did not do on purpose.