Our customer has requested two split columns for use in a kitchen. This will be an unusual project in that the customer wants to reproduce a larger version of an existing cabinet post. The original cabinet post measures 36” in height x 3 ½” in width x 1 ½” in depth. We will take the profile from the original post and expand the size to 96” in height x 8” in width x 2 ¼” in depth. The enlarged columns/post will be used on the sides of a cabinet housing a sub-zero refrigerator…this is going to look really neat!
We will use the “Revolve” technique in our EnRoute software program to reproduce the column. We began by drawing the profile of the original post and a straight line that becomes an axis to revolve the profile around…next we revolved the profile 180 degrees around the axis and create our 3 dimensional mesh column.
The mesh object is floating in space at this point, to make the object usable we will merge it to a flat relief.
Next we slice the column from the relief, expand to the finished size and create the tool paths for machining.
The size of this piece will require a roughing pass with a ½” end mill to remove excess material and a ½” ball nose to finish the surface. Total machining time on our MultiCam 5000 was approximately 3 hours per column.