During Friday’s studio, we were joined by Matt who has been helping us prepare CNC files for the wall members. Up until now, Matt has taken the lead in test cuts and managing the CNC, however, during Friday’s class he took time to teach a group of us how to operate the machine. We went over the Rhinocam process and learned how to properly load cut information for tool-pathing into the program. That information is loaded into a drive that goes to the computer connected to the CNC. Matt gave us an order of operation: place the spoil board and stock in the proper position using pins, turn on the table suction, make sure the air compression is on, and lastly make sure dust collection is on. From there, we ran through a file with him in order to hone in the proper settings. After that we were able to start cutting files ourselves. As boards came of the CNC some of us prepared jigs to drill holes for screw connections. A part of the learning process with the CNC was that in our situation the stock is of slim wood members rather than standard sheet material. That leads to some processes needing to be done by hand to insure accuracy since it is possible for boards to slip with certain operations performed by the CNC. Saturday, a crew came in and continued work on the wall members.
