i actually just used one to make a massing model that i am working on. i built the model in rhino and then cnc-d it oout at 16th scale. it worked quite well because of the complex forms i am using (i.e. compound curves) let me know if you need any more info. oh the model took about 20 hours to mill and is about 2" x9"x3" high, pretty small
That's some realy nice projects still ---- when trace say cnc is dead there are some truth in it. CNC is perfect for mold making aso. There are various technikes to remove material but what is wrong is that the 3D routing we expect ,acturly don't change anything ; it is just advanced manufactoring of a single item , --- you can use the technikes to make a one-off but realy the problem is that mainly this is just using advanced digital technikes to support outdated technikes; I said it work perfect for molds but most of these 3D technikes are useless for producing the actural thing. Who want a styrofoam boat a styrofoam car ? Who need a fragile layered instant prototype item except where you need a one-off model of the thing you want to cast in a reliable material ?
My first experience with CNC mills go back to 96 when I borrowed a small Roland XYZ router ; I still have the "drivers" I had to write to be able to mill directly from AutoCAD so I know a little about what I talk about but --- please realise that just cutting 2D can acturly produce assembly frames for just anything, acturly 3D-H is based on that idea ,that each secton forming the structure is to be N.C. cut but just with a 2.5 D router of cutter .
What I say is, that you don't need advanced 3D routing ,acturly just that can turn out to be a dead-end, compared plain 2D N.C. cutting .
coming from a model building standpoint..... sometimes it's better just to build it by hand.... todays society realies on computers way too much for work...... alot of my models on my site took 2-3 days...the larger client models took about a week....... all i did was laser cut parts from acrylic and paint/assemble...... www.237am.com
laser man.... i'm trying to buy my own...... 30,000 for a basic setup
not saying that the computer should be tossed but use it effectively. most high quality professional models are just laser cut elevations/floor plates.....
it's not what you do but how you do it.......
it's all in the details...the more we try to find advancements in technology to produce, the further away we become with the product....
i have always been a model/prototype hands on build guy... i figure if i can't build it then i don't want to design it..... not talking sky scrapers or large building but more models/interiors/furniture......
even for renderings....when was the last time you see a nice hand rendered illustration?.... it's all computers and that probably why most presentations look so flat faced.... no depth.... the human can give that quality to items that most computers can't....... sure, computer rendering look cool but i think that a good overall presentation should have a little bit of most of the presentation features....computer/hand drawn/models/trace/sharpies/etc....... give's is a vibrance overall.....
but what do i know, i can't even find a job..... but thats another thread...
for the laser cut parts, you have to think in "parts" and not "wholes"...break it down....laser cut elevations/brackets/etc..... takes a few years of craft to get to a decent level......
237 - we are making a lot things using lasers too. Actually looked at buying one (you can get one in the low teens, but it won't cut metal, for that I thought about $70k was the entry cost). So we cut the pieces and finish/assemble by hand.
CNC'ing is really cool, but not practical for most things. The problem i think is that schools still hold onto the romantic notions of theory driven design, without any regard for real world production or effeciency. That's all fine and good (and I do think it's good), but you need to check things against reality during the process.
So cnc'ing a topo model or 2D model out of MDF is 'neat', but not all that helpful. Do schools use more complex cnc'ing? I know back when it started (when I was in grad school) I always wished for the day where there would be some freedom in the production, but I haven't seen anything that suggests it's any different than it was 10 years ago.
you can look into an epilog laser or universal laser.
i was thinking about getting a versa laser 12"x24" bed with self contained air cleaner/etc.... that's about 25-30k...... i can't afford anything more and would like to keep my costs down.....
i was also looking into a shopbot which is a cnc 3 axis machine..... those would be good for wood/foam/etc...not metal...
it's always good to know how to do things the old fashion way to understand the methods/techniques of the craft..... once you learn the older ways, you will appreciate the newer methods more and can always resort to the older ways if your machine goes down or the budget doesn't allow for the technology to be used...
check out university of tasmania. they use a cnc router for a lot of projects. site is very old but they are updating. some of the learning by making projects have cnc parts. so have a lookie
lots of students and staff use it for models and furniture. not many pics of those unfortunately.
I will get some pics up hopefully. we are doing our design/build studio right now and a large part of it is being done on the CNC. Basically, just to ensure accuracy for the cuts we need. We have what we are calling a "ribbon" that folds in various places that becomes bench and roof shelter made out of 3/8" sheet metal. We had to make sure the panels were cut accurately so that they appeared to wrap around the frame.
Architects used to articulate three dimensional forms with two dimensional means. From plans to sections, we projected between two dimensional frames and then made construction drawings for tools which operate with two dimensional movements. How we built was compatible with how we drew, and architecture developed between the drafting studio and the shop with parallel mechanics. But now we are drawing complex geometries in the xyz modeling space of computers and should be working with compatible shop tools. With CNC milling machines, geometries can remain in three dimensions throughout the design process.
CNC routers, and the like, shouldn’t just be used to cut plywood as large laser cutters. Sure they're versatile, but their outstanding quality is that they can carve material in 3 dimensions and should be used to sculpt form, not cut cookies.
Jul 11, 06 1:10 am ·
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CNC project pics.
Can anyone point me in the direction of some projects that utilized a CNC router / milling machine.
Preflably student work (for use with models, furniture, etc.) or projects that are not industrial in nature.
I've already done a search and came up thin...
Thanks.
i made a sink using cnc for formwork. still in the process of pouring it but ill post some pics soon
Maybe not what you are looking for, but professional model shops make extensive use of CNC mills and routers.
nope. cnc'ing is dead.
i actually just used one to make a massing model that i am working on. i built the model in rhino and then cnc-d it oout at 16th scale. it worked quite well because of the complex forms i am using (i.e. compound curves) let me know if you need any more info. oh the model took about 20 hours to mill and is about 2" x9"x3" high, pretty small
check out pics in the gallery here at archinect for 40 Bond St. Cool milled screens thingys...
otherwise... we did some simple cnc milling for this class...
http://www.iit.edu/~mcleish/arch497_DDF/
the foam under the boards was milled on The Boss and used to make sand molds for aluminum castings
tcaup locals
http://www.peg-ola.com/portfolio/tcaup/index.php
http://www.plyarch.com/
Hi
That's some realy nice projects still ---- when trace say cnc is dead there are some truth in it. CNC is perfect for mold making aso. There are various technikes to remove material but what is wrong is that the 3D routing we expect ,acturly don't change anything ; it is just advanced manufactoring of a single item , --- you can use the technikes to make a one-off but realy the problem is that mainly this is just using advanced digital technikes to support outdated technikes; I said it work perfect for molds but most of these 3D technikes are useless for producing the actural thing. Who want a styrofoam boat a styrofoam car ? Who need a fragile layered instant prototype item except where you need a one-off model of the thing you want to cast in a reliable material ?
My first experience with CNC mills go back to 96 when I borrowed a small Roland XYZ router ; I still have the "drivers" I had to write to be able to mill directly from AutoCAD so I know a little about what I talk about but --- please realise that just cutting 2D can acturly produce assembly frames for just anything, acturly 3D-H is based on that idea ,that each secton forming the structure is to be N.C. cut but just with a 2.5 D router of cutter .
What I say is, that you don't need advanced 3D routing ,acturly just that can turn out to be a dead-end, compared plain 2D N.C. cutting .
coming from a model building standpoint..... sometimes it's better just to build it by hand.... todays society realies on computers way too much for work...... alot of my models on my site took 2-3 days...the larger client models took about a week....... all i did was laser cut parts from acrylic and paint/assemble......
www.237am.com
b
237! all you did was use a laser cutter! we should all throw our computers away!
laser man.... i'm trying to buy my own...... 30,000 for a basic setup
not saying that the computer should be tossed but use it effectively. most high quality professional models are just laser cut elevations/floor plates.....
it's not what you do but how you do it.......
it's all in the details...the more we try to find advancements in technology to produce, the further away we become with the product....
i have always been a model/prototype hands on build guy... i figure if i can't build it then i don't want to design it..... not talking sky scrapers or large building but more models/interiors/furniture......
even for renderings....when was the last time you see a nice hand rendered illustration?.... it's all computers and that probably why most presentations look so flat faced.... no depth.... the human can give that quality to items that most computers can't....... sure, computer rendering look cool but i think that a good overall presentation should have a little bit of most of the presentation features....computer/hand drawn/models/trace/sharpies/etc....... give's is a vibrance overall.....
but what do i know, i can't even find a job..... but thats another thread...
for the laser cut parts, you have to think in "parts" and not "wholes"...break it down....laser cut elevations/brackets/etc..... takes a few years of craft to get to a decent level......
and i need some model work.....
b
237 - we are making a lot things using lasers too. Actually looked at buying one (you can get one in the low teens, but it won't cut metal, for that I thought about $70k was the entry cost). So we cut the pieces and finish/assemble by hand.
CNC'ing is really cool, but not practical for most things. The problem i think is that schools still hold onto the romantic notions of theory driven design, without any regard for real world production or effeciency. That's all fine and good (and I do think it's good), but you need to check things against reality during the process.
So cnc'ing a topo model or 2D model out of MDF is 'neat', but not all that helpful. Do schools use more complex cnc'ing? I know back when it started (when I was in grad school) I always wished for the day where there would be some freedom in the production, but I haven't seen anything that suggests it's any different than it was 10 years ago.
Have there been any advances in 10 years?
you can look into an epilog laser or universal laser.
i was thinking about getting a versa laser 12"x24" bed with self contained air cleaner/etc.... that's about 25-30k...... i can't afford anything more and would like to keep my costs down.....
i was also looking into a shopbot which is a cnc 3 axis machine..... those would be good for wood/foam/etc...not metal...
it's always good to know how to do things the old fashion way to understand the methods/techniques of the craft..... once you learn the older ways, you will appreciate the newer methods more and can always resort to the older ways if your machine goes down or the budget doesn't allow for the technology to be used...
b
check out university of tasmania. they use a cnc router for a lot of projects. site is very old but they are updating. some of the learning by making projects have cnc parts. so have a lookie
lots of students and staff use it for models and furniture. not many pics of those unfortunately.
http://www.arch.utas.edu.au
there are some models done by CNC machine in this unit of the AA, u might want to check the work of the intermediate unit 3
I will get some pics up hopefully. we are doing our design/build studio right now and a large part of it is being done on the CNC. Basically, just to ensure accuracy for the cuts we need. We have what we are calling a "ribbon" that folds in various places that becomes bench and roof shelter made out of 3/8" sheet metal. We had to make sure the panels were cut accurately so that they appeared to wrap around the frame.
Anyhow
Architects used to articulate three dimensional forms with two dimensional means. From plans to sections, we projected between two dimensional frames and then made construction drawings for tools which operate with two dimensional movements. How we built was compatible with how we drew, and architecture developed between the drafting studio and the shop with parallel mechanics. But now we are drawing complex geometries in the xyz modeling space of computers and should be working with compatible shop tools. With CNC milling machines, geometries can remain in three dimensions throughout the design process.
CNC routers, and the like, shouldn’t just be used to cut plywood as large laser cutters. Sure they're versatile, but their outstanding quality is that they can carve material in 3 dimensions and should be used to sculpt form, not cut cookies.
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