Time for a fun CNC project that is great for any beginner or advanced maker! Having the Maslow CNC machine allows for me to be able to cut out any design I'd like within a 4'x8' frame! I wanted to make a gift for a friend who really likes butterflies, so I decided it would be a fun project to combine that type of design with a wine rack that could sit on top of the bar and draw plenty of attention! If you don't have this specific CNC machine, you can easily scale down the designs to fit the build size of your machine. You can also easily reduce the number of wine bottles the part will hold based on the size of the butterfly (or any animal styled wine holder you decide to go with).
To start this off, I primarily use Fusion360 to develop my models for the parts and create the CAM operations to complete the milling operations. There are several available toolkits that allow for you to output the g-code (language used to control your milling machine) into different formats specific to the machine you will be using.
In the video, you'll see that I reference the Easel Power Hour Challenge by Inventables. They put this challenge out to have makers put their creativity towards their designs, while ensuring their parts could be milled out in under 60 minutes! This may seem like an easy challenge at first, but the time it takes to mill out a part quickly multiplies based on the number of different milling operations you decide to use. The butterfly wine rack was designed to reduce this multiplication affect by only really needing one simple operation of 2D contouring the outline of the butterfly. The holes that hold the wine bottles are also large enough to allow for this contouring operation. The only part that slowed down the process was when I needed to use the 2D pocket operation to mill out holes that the wings could slide into. If CNC machines are new to use and you don't have too much experience with modeling, these terms and operations might seem like a lot to handle, but I promise it's easy to pick up and run with! Leave a comment below if these are all new to you and if you'd be interested in some type of introduction to how to model for your CNC projects!
After completing the operations I planned to use for this wine rack, I simply output the G-code to my Maslow CNC software and hit "GO"! When you put thought into planning the layout of your design and the paths that your CNC machine is going to cut your piece, it's possible to only need to load one sheet of wood and reduce any bit changes on your router, so that you can have your CNC machine work continuously without much or any human intervention!
After the CNC is done cutting out this part, there aren't too many steps needed for assembling! I first decided to paint all of the pieces disassembled, because it's difficult to paint a part with a unique shape/orientation such as this wine holder. I used a white spray paint as a base and then used a really fun paint method called hydro-dipping (similar to dirty pouring). To hydro your pieces, all you need is a large bucket full of water and several spray paints of different, fun colors! You can spray the paint in any order/style and when you're happy with what is spread out in the bucket, you just dip your piece right in and when you pull it out it will grab all of the colors with it on the way out! This is such a great and fun way to color your pieces and I was really surprised with how fast the paint dried!
After having everything painted, all was left was to attach all of the pieces with some screws and wood glue, add a finishing layer of polyurethane and then enjoy seeing this fun design holding some great wine bottles! Let me know what you think of this fun project and I would love to hear about any fun designs like this that you've made as well!
