I never expected to use my CNC for model making, but it turned out to be a helpful tool for this little project.
The back story (every good project has a story) is that one of my favorite New Orleans area buildings is in a neighborhood that is rapidly changing. Urban renewal means its demise is probably on the horizon, and I wanted to make something to keep it alive ... at least on a small scale.
One corner of the building is curved at the top and with a door at a 45º angle. I had trouble figuring out how to model the corner and make things line up correctly. Then I realized I had a tool that could solve that issue.
I cut a bottom and top support for building the walls out of 1/4" MDF. The top piece was cut two-sided to make the slight overhang above the main door. Those pieces let me make a framework to wrap the 1/8" foam-core for the walls.
The overhanging roof also needed something to simplify the modeling. I cut 25 supports out of 1/8" birch plywood with the CNC. I would never have succeeded in making that many pieces to a consistent size if I had tried cutting them by hand.
The back story (every good project has a story) is that one of my favorite New Orleans area buildings is in a neighborhood that is rapidly changing. Urban renewal means its demise is probably on the horizon, and I wanted to make something to keep it alive ... at least on a small scale.
One corner of the building is curved at the top and with a door at a 45º angle. I had trouble figuring out how to model the corner and make things line up correctly. Then I realized I had a tool that could solve that issue.
I cut a bottom and top support for building the walls out of 1/4" MDF. The top piece was cut two-sided to make the slight overhang above the main door. Those pieces let me make a framework to wrap the 1/8" foam-core for the walls.
The overhanging roof also needed something to simplify the modeling. I cut 25 supports out of 1/8" birch plywood with the CNC. I would never have succeeded in making that many pieces to a consistent size if I had tried cutting them by hand.