My boss has got an exciting way of calling up potential clients with a unique business card type. I've mentioned this in previous posts but never actually showed it before.
He designed and put together a mini model rocket "kit" that he ships out to specific people to showcase what our shop can do. It's a really ingenious idea and apparently has gotten him quite a bit of business in the past. Because it's a showpiece item that you'd typically display on your desk, it's something that catches your eye; it being a rocket is even better for those more technical minded who would appreciate it. Since it's a kit that you put together, you are emotionally invested in it; that's a huge factor when it comes to items of perceived value. If someone makes something with their hands, they subconsciously tie a higher value to it than the same item made by someone else.
The plan for this showpiece is to have certain aspects anodized blue and other raw machined aluminum. This means the part is a multi-operation piece requiring the majority of it to be finished, then it gets sent out for coloring and gets cut again to remove some of the colors in certain areas.
My boss designed the rocket in Mastercam, which is used for CNC programming and not as design software. Thus, the part consisted of a series of single faces put together for toolpaths to follow over. He also had a fixture plate already made for the project, so I was tasked with fixing the broken model and making it a solid one, which I would then program the operation.
I got to use some new features in Fusion360 to help me out with this, one of which was the section of the surface where you could create and manipulate independent faces and build solid models in a roundabout way. Using this, I was able to fix gaps in the models and turn the rocket into a bunch of solid models. It took a bit of playing around to get the hang of it, but when I did, the work went really fast, and got everything cleaned up!
The image of the yellow and purple parts is the before, where everything isn't connected properly, and you can only get a general idea of the model. And the grey is the finished model where all the bodies are solid and complete.
My boss also decided to get the Fusion360 manufacturing extension, which will give me a huge amount of new tools to work with. I am most excited about the snipping tool; it allows you to manually go through and cut out any parts of your toolpath to avoid certain areas or just cut down on machine time!