As part of our practice using the machine, I made my general social media handle @guoingup (IG, Snapchat) on Aspire. I had originally intended for the letters to be cut deeper, but it came out like this which I actually loved (and helped inspire my project).

You might notice that the "@", "in", and "p" got cut off. 2 notes:

1. This is oriented strand board (OSB), which I think looks cool, but might be prone to breaking off in small chunks since that's how it's literally structured.
2. The CNC machine's end mill is only so big, maybe 1/8 inch here, so small cuts are a lot to ask.

For my CNC creation, I wanted to make a knife for my friend Knut.

The context:

• His friend's dad asked him over dinner once if "Ka-nut wanted a ka-nife", which I just found hilarious.
• Knut's favorite movie is Knives Out.

The design:

• I outlined the knife used near the end of the movie hehe:
• And I wanted the blade to say "Knut needs a Knife" -- but in the typeface of Knives Out's title card:
  • Here's the Knives Out title card:
  • I used the title card + a picture of Nic Dennis's Agatha Font + Adobe Illustrator's handy-dandy image trace feature:
    Agatha Font:
    Initial designs:
    And here's my first knife design:
• I added some custom detailing to the handle, including spirals.

One DXF file later...

In Aspire:
It seemed that there were still too many fine details for our 1/8th inch end mill to handle, so I had to keep making the knife bigger and bigger until the program would allow me to make the necessary toolpaths. I used the pocket toolpath to flatten around the words for the blade, and the bevel toolpath to create interesting texture for the details on the handle.

I found Aspire surprisingly intuitive with all the tools I needed to finish the design on.



Since the ShopBot and the 1/8th inch drill was unable to get the finer details, I drilled the holes for the "s" and the "e" myself with the drill press:




And voila!