So Much CAM, so Little Time
This week we learned how to use a couple new CAM tools, and being the eager beaver that I am, I took on the task of trying out as many as I could.
But the main tool I’m going to focus on is the CNC Mill. We have a Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machine, formerly OtherMill. After learning about the different materials we could carve into using this machine, I was extremely excited to learn that linoleum was one of them. In the printmaking class I took during undergrad, linocuts were my favorite, so I was eager to see what I could make with this machine. I very quickly went on a whirlwind with this project. Our lino blocks are 4"x5", so I thought it would be nice to carve one into a stamp that I could ink and stamp onto postcard size paper. I sketched out a scene involving a campsite by the mountains, pulled it into Illustrator, and worked a little magic on it. When we originally learned how to use the mill, we were shown how to use Fusion360 to set up cutpaths and all the other useful information the mill would need to actually cut out the design. Unfortunately, when I tried to put my SVG file from Illustrator into Fusion, it got extremely angry with me. The program froze on me multiple times, and eventually I admitted defeat, realizing that I was bringing in a much too detailed file with difficult curves. I wasn’t quite ready to give up on this design yet, so I did a lot of googling and eventually found a new route to take. The Inventables website has a program called Easel built into it that allows you to bring in SVG files, identify toolpaths, and then carve them out using an X-Carve, Shapeoko, or Carvey. Luckily, it also allows you to generate the g-code for your file. G-Code is a compilation of all the coordinates that the mill needs to follow to actually cut out the design; it’s also exactly what I needed. I was able to pull this g-code into the Bantam Tools software that communicates with our machine. After a few final tweaks to the numbers (and adding a line of code to the g-code), I pressed start! A little under three hours later, and I had my finished stamp.
I originally intended to just use an ink pad and stamp it onto paper, but I couldn’t seem to find one large enough. Instead I got some block printing ink and a roller at Hobby Lobby and used a process more similar to that of creating an actual linocut.
Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the final images. I just need to tweak the amount of ink I use. The video below shows the entire process from start to finish.
