Shumyla Lopez Blog Post 

Process:

In the initial stages of this project, brainstorming was challenging. I decided to make a water ripple incense holder. I initially made a jewelry holder that used topographical designs of mountains; the original design had many holes and errors, so I decided to change the design completely. After refining the design, I experienced much difficulty in editing the mesh and rescaling the model to fit the size of the criteria of the assignments. Moreover, once I had finished the design, I uploaded the code file to the CNC machine, where Ryan noticed that there were a few errors in the scale and tool path, which he guided me in correcting the issue.

Result:

Overall, in the creation process, I had initially created a tool path that was not circular; however, Ryan corrected me on that! I had a lot of attempts at changing the design, and the quality of the rendering had made my computer crash multiple times. I was able to reduce the complexity of the rendering, which made the process much more efficient (the original scale was over 50 inches, which would have resulted in an impossibly large and long carving time). At the end of the process, however, I realized that the generated toolpath was going to be lengthy based on the displayed CNC programmed route. Overall, despite using a 1/8'' drill bit, the carving was successful and did not result in any broken drills.

 The project also remained intact. I also received guidance from Elizabeth, which also made the process smoother. I overall believe that this has actually been the most difficult project to date, especially since there were a lot of challenges in finding an STL file that was not overly detailed (causing computer crashes. The finished product is a square water ripple-patterned incense stick holder (not to light, but to have on hand once incense has been fully used, especially since it is wood, which would cause a massive issue)

Reflection:

Despite the challenges, I had a lot of fun watching the CNC machine for almost two hours; it was very satisfying to see the drill bit carve away the wood. I also enjoyed manipulating the model and problem-solving how to reduce the crashing issue with my laptop. I was honestly impressed to see how detailed and smooth the finished product turned out. I believe some of the major changes I would adopt in doing this project again are to select a simplified design. I believe it was a lot for the machine to process an efficient pathway for carving. I would also like to experiment with a thicker wood, as I believe it would be fun to generate cityscapes that have greater height.