What to do when you design an UGLY model?
What should you do when you design a butt ugly CNC model? Below is what took me days to design for CNCKing.com – I spent a lot of effort but even after all that time, the results were just ugly… no matter what I did, it was ugly and just didn’t have any presence. In my eyes, it’s boring and a project that fails to inspire me.
My goal with this model was to make a deviation from the model I showed you guys the other day of the crocodile box so right from the start, I had a mold that I was trying to design around using the same limitations of 4mm thick material and fit within a 30cm cube. It just wasn’t going to happen… I thew it out! I had so many ideas but just couldn’t get it to work and modifying a design endlessly is a waste of time and effort. It’s usually far quicker just to design something again from scratch. That’s what I did and the results – though still very much a work in progress – speak for themselves.
This design is not CNC table router friendly, it would look “blurred” if made with a table router and I don’t even think that the gears the way I designed them would ultimately work as their intersection points are just too dead-on. You can make square inner edges with a round bit no matter how small the bit. I could scale this model up 3-4x and give it a try but nah… I got more ideas than time so I’ll just design something FOR table routers when the time comes.
I still have a few more days of work to tighten up the design, the gears should work great – it’s certainly something I never saw before and most importantly, it has the presence and intrigue that the other model lacked. You see this and you WANT to try to see if the gears will turn – and they will!
In the front it a half-drawer that comes-out all the way to the front to put stuff in and then goes all the way back in it’s place. I’m still working on the inner components so that it doesn’t DROP when fully extended and can’t be slid all the way OUT by accident though I’m still debating that feature.
DESIGNING IS FUN!
I really like making this kind of stuff – it’s quite different from what I though I’d make but that’s part of the fun – I don’t see my finished model until I start building and playing with it during the design process. Some artists SEE their work and remove material until it becomes uncovered – for me, my mind is completely blank and I go with the flow. Sometimes the results are AWFUL (top picture) but usually they are rather unique.