CNC Shark Forum

The original design for this project was by God. It was first built about 5,000 to 7,500 years ago by Noah. I don't know his last name.
Translating from cubits to inches was the biggest challenge...
I didn't adhere too closely to the original design anyway.
I made this pair of Arks for twins of a friend of ours. This is their Naming Day celebration gift. After being filled with animal crackers, each half of their Arks fit together to form a complete vessel that's held together with Velcro tabs. And, there are two of each animal. The finish is a food safe salad bowl finish. (It had to dry for three days and three nights.)

Bob
I covered their names with the blue tape:

Bob,

That is neat! Did you measure each cookie with your Vernier caliper or did you phone the manufacturer for dimensions?

Either way a great idea.

Bill
Thanks.
The pictures were posted online. I used VCarve to convert to vectors then offset so that the crackers would fit.
I did try tracing the crackers first, but it was too time consuming.
Bob

Great idea and nice project. Hears an idea for the tracing.... put one of each shape on a piece of paper, spray black paint lightly over them, remove the animals (to the trash of course) then either take a pic with a digital camera or scan the paper and use the trace and offset function.

Roger

Roger,
Where were you when I was trying to trace around the cookies with a pencil? (I need one of Karen's forehead slapping Smilies.)
The spray paint sounds like a much easier method to try in one of my future adventures.
Thanks,
Bob

Skip spray paint. Simply lay the light colored cookies on a black sheet of paper. Photograph, import, vectorize as a black and white image.

Thanks 4dt, When I tried that, the edges still turned out fuzzy. I even tried sanding the cracker flat and scanning...still fuzzy. I should have sanded flat, sprayed, then scanned.
After converting the picture to vectors, the offsetting function smoothed the fuzzy edges too. The "fit curves to selected vectors" also cleaned up edges, but was not needed in this project after offsetting.
Another method that sometimes works is to offset outwards, then take that offset vector and offset it back inwards the same amount. I have found that method helpful when smoothing, and making the track vectors on some cribbage boards.
Cutting the animal pockets was a good mini-adventure.
Bob

Ok, to eliminate fuzzy edges you need fresh crackers.

I enjoy the adventures too. Been testing the VCarve Inlay (not the inlay toolpath) process lately and it is clear I need to practice more. My students seem intrigued by the samples though, which is the whole point. Hopefully they'll be inspired to push the limits of VCarve/CNCing some.

4D

Or, I shouldn't have been eating the crackers as fast as I was trying to trace them. Even the same animal is a little different size than the rest.
Have fun with those adventures!
Bob

Of course, that is part of the job! Except the ones that have been spray painted. LOL

Roger