autonomatic_team_drummond masterton

Drummond Masterton

project_Test Pieces

Computer Aided Manufacturing software offers the creative practioner the opportunity to edit numerous parameters that affect the physical and visual outcome of an object, most programs are designed for use by industry and therefore are fully automated or wizard based in order to achieve a finish that is related to manufacturing techniques such as injection or blow moulding.

The vast number of variables that can be altered during the CNC milling process, such as tool, step over increment and type of cut mean that making an informed decision about which numbers to input in relation to a particular desired surface quality can be very difficult.

During my research of the Tessellation and Patterning projects I have found it necessary and useful to develop a body of knowledge through testing a large number of these variables. These tests have had to be focused in order to be able to quickly grow a database of cutting samples, I have gained an understanding of the mathematics behind the physical qualities and developed an excel spreadsheet that allows me to recognise where two tools or variables would create similar results.

The images are a small selection of these test pieces showing a wide variety in surface qualities by using simple 2D drawing tools, a selection of free scripts for 3D studio max such as CNC Toolkit and playing with variables in Mayka , a piece of CAM software.

projects

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Surface Patterning :> :> :> :> :>
Star Tessellation :> :> :> :> :>
Test Pieces :> :> :> :> :> :> :> :>
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Terraincup :> :> :> :> :> :> :> :>
Cycleau-Cornwall :> :> :> :> :>
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