For this assignment, I eventually decided to combine it with my Energy midterm - a solar powered planter box. This was tremendously helpful, as it allowed me to focus on one project, making it as nice as it could be, rather than splitting my time between two half-realized projects.
The perfect thing about the CNC was that it allowed me to create exactly what I needed in a very short time frame, while simultaneously appearing smooth and professional. Of course, I could do this with the laser cutter, but the design would have to be different, and it would likely involve screws - unless I took forever designing. Again, this was not something that I had in abundance, and besides, this is a CNC project after all!
I decided on hexagons because they are cool, and because you can't cut them easily with hand tools, or turn them on the lathe. It are a uniquely CNC-oriented shape.
My design animated as a cutting sequence in Mastercam. So beautiful, had to video.
The first three came right out, but the other 3 I had to hammer out, and sand down.
Really glad to see the few pockets I had cut properly, and in the right order, as they overlapped with contours that needed to be cut.
I think I've learned by now that I need to set the thickness of my wood to about 0.05-0.08 thicker than it is, to account for Z-wobble so that it cuts all the way through. It worked out in the end.
The pieces fit perfectly! And the arduino fit inside perfectly! And the motor fit, and the motor fitting fit - though I did have to do a little sanding.
Then I glued em up! All the clamps.
Now that I have all the pieces cut, roughly sanded, and glued - I can do proper sanding and finishing!
Got to put in that elbow grease!
Added the solar panel circuit, complete with wires into the plant to measure the water content and move the servo dial.
So happy it works so smoothly! It's a little wobbly though. In the future I'd add more panels around it so there's sun on it at all times. In that case they could also be a bit smaller. I'd also add some more stabilization to the part that rotates so it stays level.