Made at theCO: Whiskey & Cigar Tray

Made at theCO

Sep 5

Made at theCO is back with another fun project created by Austin Thompson, the Makerspace Manager here at theCO! Below you’ll learn how to design and cut a wooden whiskey and cigar tray from scratch using the CNC machine and laser cutter, which can both be found in our makerspace.

Tools:

Table saw
CNC
Laser Cutter
Sander

Materials:

Wood, approximately 5in x 12in

Step One:

Find a piece of wood and cut it down to a usable size for your CNC machine using a table saw. For this project, we used a 5in x 12in piece of wood.

Step Two:

Next, design the CNC file that you will use to cut out the shape of your tray. Austin prefers to use inkscape, however there are plenty of other design softwares that you can get your hands on for a simpler project like this.

Step Three:

Upload your file to a flash drive.

Step Four:

Pull the file from your flash drive and put it into Easel, the CNC machine software, then begin cutting out your design.

Step Five:

After your design has finished cutting, sand down any rough edges on all of the tray’s sides and surfaces to create a smooth base before transferring it to the laser cutter.

Step Six:

Take your sanded tray and place it in the laser cutter. Find two designs that you like, or design your own, and have the laser cut them into the “cupholder” portions of the tray. For this step, Austin designed one of the sides himself, while he used a design he found for the other side.