Recently in Dimensional Cuts Category

Graduate student Terry Hildebrand created this custom tray using the CNC Router. He also routed molds for the base of the cups so that they'd fit perfectly into their spots.

We made some of these custom fit iPad frames for a show in the Department of Art's Quarter Gallery. This version is cut from MDF, however the frame could be cut from any type of wood. It could also be stained or painted according to display needs.

SFDS is a Fabrication and Design shop located in Brooklyn, NY. They create props, furniture and scenery for a variety of clients and use the CNC router as a major tool in their shop. Below are just a few examples of some of the exciting work being created.

This piece was part of FriendsWithYou's Rainbow City installation from 2011 in NY.

One of the SFDS employees, Kevin Kleber, has a fantastic Tumblr site called cnckevin. It has many great images of the projects he is working on there.

Former University of Minnesota Professor Ali Momeni (currently a Professor at Carnegie Mellon) is teaching a class at CMU titled Digital Fabrication for the Arts. Students are using Rhino/Rhino CAM along with a lasercutter and 2.5 axis router to create a wide array of work.

See examples below, visit their blog for links, references and more work examples.

Doug Haffner creates signs, murals and themed environments using the CNC as one of his key tools. His journal tracks new projects and steps in the process.

The Big Box Menagerie was a project made by Dept. of Art Router Tech Robin Schwartzman as part of Sideshow Soo, hosted by SooVac at the Pat's Tap Block Party in August 2012.

The initial digital drawing was done using Adobe Illustrator. The vector lines of both the box and animals were then imported into EnRoute4 as .eps files, where she created dimensional reliefs in the wheels, detailing and banner. Everything was toolpathed in EnRoute and cut on the Forest Scientific here in the Dept. of Art.

The pieces were painted and assembled together to create the final box. Participants could crawl into it and pose with their favorite animal for a photo.

The Cutting Room, a commercial routing shop in the UK, is doing a number of large scale, beautiful projects. They make anything from doors and panels to lettering and signs to desks and benches.

Graduate students Daniel Dean and Ryan Wurst worked on a project for the Minneapolis Arboretum called Underground Sound. This field of sonic flowers allows viewers to listen to the sounds of the earth via giant megaphones.

The mold for the megaphone was designed in Rhino and imported into Enroute as an .STL. We created all the toolpathing in EnRoute. The form was cut in pieces on the CNC router using a 1/2" wide by 3.5" tall ball nose bit. Because our router only has a 6" z-clearance, Daniel glued together panel board to be 3.5" deep and divided the megaphone up into various sections. Once cut, the sections were glued together to create the final form, which was then used as a mold for the fiberglass.

The router has been busy, as we've been creating some signs for different areas of the Art Department, including the Tool Crib, 3D lab and e-studio.

Our laser technician Anthony Kling wanted to create a custom beer bottle made of slip-cast porcelain. The first step was to create a positive for a mold, which we did using the router and stacked sheets of glued-together MDF. Here you can see the final design in EnRoute.

We started with a couple of rough passes using a 1/2" ball nose bit to clear out excess material.

Then we used a 1/4" ball nose at an 85% overlap to create the final smooth finish.

The two halves will be glued together to create the whole positive.