Ceci n'est pas une pizza

I had a lot less trouble with this week’s Subtraction exercise than last week’s. The primary trouble I had was with scheduling and other people– I waited three hours to see if someone would vacate the MasterCAM station on Friday, and found it constantly occupied. Consequently, my project isn’t quite where I wanted it to be, but I’m pretty content.

The first thing I had to do was get materials and come up with a concept. I found some unlabeled MDF, and was brainstorming on Wednesday when a website told me that it was national pizza day on February 9th– so I decided to cut out a pizza. Why not?

(In truth, I wanted to cut out vending machine housing, but I didn’t have enough material. Pizza it is!)

I made a template in Vectorworks.

And then modified it so the cut lines were clearer.

This is what I wanted to bring to the MasterCAM on Friday, but the station was busy. Consequently, I couldn’t get it set up until during my CNC reservation on Sunday, at which point I discovered that the slice lines were too thin for the bit that I had. I had to quickly discard the slice lines and keep only the original sauce concept, which was fine! I just wish I discovered it on Friday, but the MasterCAM was busy.

I set up the CNC, which was simple enough. Honestly, I had more trouble using enough pressure with a hand drill to keep my material on then anything else.

Here’s the CNC in action. I spent most of the time vacuuming, just to pass the time.

The cutting finished without hiccups, though it ended up a little close to the edge of the material for my liking. I should double check my origin in relation to the cuts before I take it to the CAM.

It’s still a pretty nice wooden pizza, though. Ceci est une belle maquette, même si ce n’est pas une pizza.

EDIT: I later put the thing in a pizza box. It’s pretty cute, and worth a laugh.