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Photos by Rand Lemley |
For those who don't know, the BAC has a CNC router. I certainly wasn't aware until I heard about it in passing late in the fall semester. Instantly, my imagination ran with the possibilities this machine opens up for studio and beyond. When I heard about the open house, I signed up as soon as I could. I had to have access to this fabrication tool of the future.
A CNC router is essentially a high-speed drill on a computer-controlled arm that can precisely carve many planar materials to match a 3D computer model. Kyle Sturgeon, the faculty member who oversees the CNC router operation, showed examples of his digital fabrication work from University of Michigan to give a sense of the capabilities of the machine. After Kyle's talk, we were given a demonstration of the router in action by the student assistants, Jeff Nunez and Levi Tofias. The demonstration was followed by a tutorial of how to use the toolpath software, Partworks.
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Levi explaining how the CNC router works. Image: Rand Lemley |