Saturday, January 27, 2007

Making Earrings on the CNC mill

I went on a creative jag this week, playing with fabricating earrings on the CNC mill

Milling a piece of aluminum flat to adhere the silver sheet to.

24 ga. (.019") sterling silver sheet. I use 3M carpet tape to adhere the silver to the aluminum, after cleaning both surfaces with rubbing alcohol.

Milling a pair of earrings. I first used a 60 degree engraving cutter to do the text, then a 1/32" endmill to drill and profile the earrings.

The earrings stayed in position and strongly adhered to the carpet tape, I had to use WD-40 to unstick them from the aluminum

The finished earrings (on sale on Etsy)

Milling a pair of steampunk-ish gear earrings (gearrings). In spite of the cutouts the carpet tape still held well.

The finished earrings.

The omma earrings took a bit of doing, two online dictionaries, a brief lesson in hangul typography and a bit of CAD magic. I tried out a diamond drag engraving tool for this time, which you use with the spindle off. I think I prefer the results to the 60 degree engraving bit.

Korean Hangul Omma (mom) earrings.

I also did a pair of emoticon smiley earrings and I'm working on a few more designs. It's pretty addictive and fun to be playing with textual jewelry.