Wood Plumeria

Wooden Plumeria

Final Wooden Plumeria

I designed and machined multiple wooden plumeria flowers on a CNC router for my grandparents' grave in Hawaii. Unfortunately, my family does not get to visit my grandparents' grave often and I wanted to design something to leave at their grave that would last longer than typical flowers.

Designing the Plumeria

For this project I used Autodesk Inventor to design the flower. I ended up creating two versions. The first one was a smaller 1 inch flower made out of Red Oak and the second flower was 2.5 inches in diameter that was made out of Purpleheart. 

To do the CAM for the plumeria, I used Autodesk HSM to create all the toolpaths. This was my first project that I used 3D toolpaths for. For this project I had to teach myself how 3D toolpaths work, and I did a lot of research to learn how to properly use Autodesk HSM. Overall, through doing this project I learned a lot.

Manufacturing the Wood Plumeria

1.) Top Half of Plumeria

2.) Bottom Half of Plumeria

3.) Cutting Out the Plumeria

4.) Applying Wood Finish

To machine this wood plumeria I had to do two machining operations for each side of the plumeria. Before starting, I screwed the wood board to the CNC router. I first did one machining operation on the top half of the plumeria. I then unscrewed the board, flipped it, and did the second half of the plumeria. After finishing all the machining operations, I cut out the work holding tabs on the flower and sanded the flower. Lastly, I applied wood finish to the plumeria.

Additional Photos and Video

IMG_5313.MOV

Video of Machining the Plumeria (Warning: Video Audio is Loud)

Plumeria at Grandparents' Grave