Earlier this week I experimented with cherry wood to see if I could mill an NPR logo for an upcoming Raspberry Pi Zero Radio.
Todd Treece, software engineer on the Adafruit remote team, wrote a node JS app for the Raspberry Pi that uses the NPR One radio API. Being an avid wood worker, he had planned to build an enclosure out of wood. Todd sent me a few scrap pieces of cherry wood to play with and a prototype of his Pi Zero radio. We’re collaborating on the project and working towards releasing a tutorial on the Adafruit Learning site in the coming weeks.
I’ve done two live streams on YouTube earlier this week showing the design process of the 3D printed case.
We planned to CNC mill the top cover of the case out of cherry wood. I had three attempts before getting final part and broke two 1/8″ end mills. Unlike the acrylic and PLA/PHA materials I’ve milled, wood is quite different. Following the settings on the Othermill site, I setup the tooth paths in Autodesk Fusion 360. I’m still learning how to use CAM tools and learning to avoid tool collisions and better tool path optimizations. Although Fusion has a really nice simulator, it’s still a “make to learn” type thing.
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