CNC Production: Design through Fabrication

Through the past decade, I’ve released lots of videos showcasing how we take things from design through fabrication, although the machinery has changed, the general process remains the same.

Design Through Fabrication: Design

The design ideas that our customers come-up with range from specific material specs with 3D CAD down to a photograph of something they liked and they want “something similar” but with the following changes… using more photos to indicate key areas of the design.

During this process, a design naturally evolves as the model gets further tuned-up to more closely match the expectations the customer has within the budget and general spec parameters they give to CNCROi.com to work with.

This process can take a few minutes to a few weeks depending on the complexity of the design and the materials required to test and evaluate to make sure the overall project is even possible.

The design process, depending on the complexity, can take the shape of several technological leaps, from just sketches going back and forth for the simple 2D stuff to full-blown 3D animations showcasing every aspect of the design.

Design Through Fabrication: Prototyping

Generally, once the design issue are sorted, an actual physical prototype must be produced, this can take the shape of either the entire model or just a few parts of it depending on the complexity of the model.

At this time,CNCROi.com can also make larger versions of the smaller model to help attract investors to a project or to help better explain the model itself while “on the road”.

I have extensive experience doing all of these steps as I’ve gone through them with both clients and my own personal projects, here’s one such invention of mine, the Drais BMT.

But as this bike multi-tool was so small, its hard to showcase it’s capabilities so what I did was make a far larger prop to help outline it for the videos.

You can of course buy a personalized Drais BMT over at MetalBounty.com.

Design Through Fabrication: Limited Production Run

Now for the fun part of the design through fabrication phase, doing a limited production run before going full-scale.

You might think that once the prototype is all sorted and proven, it’s time to jump the fence and jump into the thousands of units right off the bat.

If it’s only a simple shape where little can “go wrong”, absolutely, but what I’ve found works best is to do a limited production run for the customer to evaluate the skid of units they are about to receive and for CNCROi.com to find tune the design for a bigger run.

TeaLightBox.com is a great example of this process at work.

The above was the first production ready version of the totally customizable TeaLightBox.com I came-up with, if you look closely at the logo, you can see the slightly different construction version I had initially by the way.

I’ve made a lot of custom personalized Tea Light Boxes for customers of TeaLightBox.com but after some feedback, I decided that it was time to allow the design to evolve a little bit more to solve one of the biggest paint points that I was learning about. Glue.

I have a full shop full of glue, woodworking and metal tooling but the one things I didn’t think about was that glue would be an issue with customers of TeaLightBox.com so if I would have made a huge production run of a thousand of these right off the bat, I would have possibly been stuck with a lot of inventory that wasn’t totally consumer ready.

Design Through Fabrication: Full Production Run

The next step after everything checks out, the CNCROi.com customer and their customers approve the design, have thoroughly tested the idea out and are starting to generate buzz if for us to go full production.

This step involves making all the units that the customer requires and then some, this can be something as simple as a proofed-out polycarbonate coaster with Pine…

… to something as simple as just straight reclaimed coasters.

The full production run is done with timetables and benchmarks, depending on volume, where payment terms are fully fleshed and we are working hard to pound out the units for our customer to accept order for.

The fun part about going into full production is that trust has been established, the customer knows what they are getting and CNCROi.com knows what’s expected.

Design Through Fabrication: Benchmarks

For bigger projects at CNCROi.com, benchmarks are generally established, this means for every X units produced, customer sends us a cheque for Y.

This helps break things down a bit so no huge cash outlay is required on either side, we buy the materials (if we are supplying it) and make the units then ship and then repeat until the entire project is finished.

Although the products can change, this is generally how we do our mill work projects, whether its full cabinet assemblies, kids toys or panels.

Things are more straight forward when we only have a few units to produce but even with large quantities being expected, breaking things down into smaller chunks, I’ve found, makes things go easier and smoother for all involved when it comes to CNC production, design through fabrication.

Have a project that you need help with?

Contact CNCROi.com right now!