When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

The Oxenham Aviary

I had 2 meetings today, one first thing in the morning, and one this afternoon. This left the day in-between to do a little work on our seagulls. I got the bodies and heads glued together, as well as the last slice of the wing cut and fastened on.


While these were setting up, I was able to toolpath the top portion of all 3 beaks. I havent posed the 4th seagull, so I haven't addressed him at all yet.
I could have applied 1 more level of smoothing to the beaks in Hexagon, but I figured that the whole beak would get sanded down because of the joints anyway, so I didn't sweat it too much. I sliced the beak for our 3/4 inch PVC sheet in Aspire, and the pieces lined up perfectly!
 I quickly test fit the beak, and I'm quite happy with it. I've been cnc'ing models for 6 years now, and I always get amazed when the real thing looks exactly like the computer model. I know, I'm a geek!
8)
JO
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4 comments:

  1. Malcolm19 April 2012 at 17:05

    Hi there,
    How do you get on with the StyroSpray 'slumping' on vertical surfaces? Do you spray a model in one hit from the side and work your way around? Or do you spray from the top, turning after it dries to spray the other 'sides'?
    Mal

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  2. jamie oxenham19 April 2012 at 17:26

    You have to build it in thinner coats. Then let it kick for 30 min or so, as long as you re-coat within 60 min, the layers will bond well. Your right though, it can be a little poopy on vertical surfaces. I find the smallest openning on a hopper gun works well, takes a bit of time to build up though.

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  3. Malcolm19 April 2012 at 18:13

    OK great. Thanks Jamie. How many coats do you usually end up going for? And how much airflow and pressure do you find works for the nicest spray pattern?

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  4. jamie oxenham19 April 2012 at 21:15

    Depends what the application is. If it needs to survive outside with people touching it, 1/4". If it's an indoor thing without people having access to it, then I usually use enough to smooth out the styrofoam. As for pressure etc, not to high, or it just fogs up the room in a giant death cloud! Around 30 max. For the most part, it kinda sprays like wet toilet paper and looks rough, but the more coats the smoother it gets. I will probably just brush it on our sign.

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