Every so often, that console-modding Benjamin Heckendorn wanders away from his lair at benheck.com to share some interesting projects with Engadget.
In the past Engadget's very own Will O'Brien has demostrated how to build your own CNC (computer numericial control) cutting machine, and he also plans future articles on this subject. Searching the internet, you can't swing a nunchuk without hitting plans for "do it yourself" CNC machines, motor kits being sold, etc. A CNC machine is truly one of the ultimate projects a hobbyist can build and one of the best tools to have in a shop when finished. Yes, even better than a speed square. However, while much is said of what you can cut with such a machine, the how part of design creation isn't always as clear.

For today's How-To we're going to go through the process of designing a somewhat complex item that can be cut with a standard 3 axis homebuilt CNC machine: a jointed "robotic hand". This requires several design methods drawn in multiple views, which will demostrate many of the techniques that are useful in preparing items for CNC cutting. At the very least it's a good primer for vector artwork in general, if you've ever been curious about it. So let's take a look at what's involved in prepping our CNC robot factory, shall we?

Ok, let's get started designing a robotic hand in order to learn some 2D CNC design techniques. Sure we could have made something boring like an acrylic computer case, but let's face it, fake robot hands are freaking awesome. Plus there's loads of nuances in it that will help us cover several aspects of design.

For this project we're going to design everything to be cut with 1/8-inch thick material using a 1/8-inch diameter bit. It's fun to go hog-wild with the designing but when it comes right down to it, you want to use as few different tools (bits) as possible. On the software side, we'll be using Adobe Illustrator (AI) for design because it's standard program, common, and cheaper than AutoCAD -- and of course, is our favorite. It can also export files to a wide vareity of formats which is handy considering the vast array of CNC machine control software out there. We'll also use Adobe Photoshop for the first step, but any image program than can scan will work fine.