Part four was all about getting the hardware to work, and part five was about generating the G-Code to drive the hardware. I’m sure you’re as sick of reading it as I am writing it, so now it’s time for some real tests!
Click on a picture to see it in more detail.
Early cutting tests. This photo was taken before we’d fitted the Arduino into a project box. The metal block you can see is just there to stop the weight of the cable from dragging everything onto the floor.
The program cuts the lizards in two passes (halfway down on first cut, all the way down on second cut) so as not to unduly stress the router bit.
Two test lizards cut, and tessellating! The 30cm rule is present just to give some scale.
I particularly like the way the direction of grain helps to show where one lizard ends and the other begins.
Four tesselating lizards.
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 7] [Part 8]
Bloody Brilliant, Kris!
I’d love to see the thing in action. Any chance??
Thanks,
Tony
Did you fasten the individual pieces or was the wood just held in place as visible on that picture? Did you have problems with a piece moving when the cut was made on the last remaining millimeters?
My software adds “bridges” to a couple of the longer edges – the drill lifts just before halfway through the cut, then continues travel for a few mm, then drops down again and finishes the cut. So the piece never moves inside the wood. When the program is finished we lift the wood off, and cut the bridges with a hacksaw.