Plastic - Project Ideas

[gsmith]

Hello,

I am an educator and I have a ShopBot Alpha 96x48x6.

I am continually being asked to create new projects for my students. My boss wants me to come up with some projects in plastic. I think he wants something like a puzzle, it has multiple pieces that look like one thing. An example he gave was machining a chain link, how it starts out as one piece of plastic but then is machined into chain links. I am not sure how to do this on a 3 axis machine.

I am wondering if anyone has any projects that I could use. The more information the better. Pictures, files, bits types and sizes would all be of great benefit.

Help me think outside the box.

I need to present some items to the School Board in April.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Greg

[chiloquinruss]

I think doing those great looking back lit desktop signs would be great projects for the students. We have experts on here that can help with those. Also the photo lithoplanes would be great projects too. Just some thoughts. Russ

[steve_g]

Your boss/supervisor/principal/department head must have seen something his dad carved when he was in high school. We used to have the kids glue up 36"long sticks so they had a cross section of an "+" they would then proceed to whittle out interlocking links. A great time waster to keep a group of kids occupied while working with another group. Totally impractical to do with a CNC. Kids love making Signs for their bedroom doors. Does your boss want to simulate a manufacturing project, produce something to sell, or just have something to show the school board to justify the program?

Steve

[gsmith]

PM - Steve

[bill.young]

Hey Greg,

If you want to try cutting chain, Ryan at ShopBot cut some out of signfoam on a Desktop indexer at the Carolina Maker Faire last year. I think he did it as 4-sided cutting and just used the indexer to turn the blank....he may have some thoughts on non-indexer cutting.

[steve_g]

Greg
PM back at you.

Steve

[khalid]

Playing PM-PM...I will suggest u to use "Autodesk 123d make" thats free of cost..import STL and make a beautiful 3D puzzle:)... just see the videos on youtube