Treasure Box Project
Treasure Box Project
Design For Manufacturing
Design For Manufacturing
October 2024
October 2024
Embedded Files
The Goal:
The Goal:
Creating a treasure box with minimum stock removal, good functionality, and great aesthetics.
For this project, my project partner and I were tasked with creating a treasure box given a piece of 3x3x1.25" aluminum stock. Using a CNC mill (Tormach), we manufactured a treasure box that could display and hold coins on the top piece while the bottom piece held miscellaneous items. The intent of this treasure box was to function mainly as a money box.
Main Design Requirements:
- The manufacturing time for each part should take less than 30 minutes
- It should be able to hold some number of quarters and dimes on the top piece
- It should be able to open and close with the dowel pins holding the pieces in place
Skills Developed:
- CNC mill operation experience
- CAD skills with manufacturing in mind
- Fusion 360 usage / CAM creation
The pictures show the processes, tool paths, and technical drawings for making the bottom piece (the part I designed). There are also final product images for the bottom piece and both the top and bottom pieces together.
We had some challenges along the way, but they were successfully handled:
- Dimension considerationsÂ
The parts include a small tolerance for important parts, such as the pin holes, to ensure the pins would be a press fit for the bottom piece.
- Machining considerations
We had to add extra steps to ensure guidance for the pin holes by chamfering the holes.
- Geometry considerations
By setting the workspace origin in the middle of the part for both pieces, we ensured the pin holes would match up if the axes were misaligned during setup.
Results:
Results:
Both pieces of the part had an estimated simulation time of under 30 minutes. In reality, the manufacturing process was closer to 50 minutes due to tool changes, changing feed rates, and set-up/clean-up times. This also does not account for the extra time from facing each side for the clean finish that was done with a manual mill. There were also software issues, including not ensuring the "stock to leave offset" was turned off. This meant that the pockets on the bottom and top pieces were not to the correct dimensions. The pocket on the bottom piece is at a depth of 0.38" instead of the desired 0.4". The diameters for the coin pockets were also smaller than desired, meaning they did not specifically fulfill the main design requirement we set for our treasure box. However, this was a great learning outcome since this was a project for learning.
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