01
Stock setup
The body was split along its midplane so each half could be milled separately without a flip. The stock holes and acrylic fixture handled repeatable positioning.
MECHANICAL · CAD · MACHINING · FABRICATION
Pingu.
A tabletop eye-candy object machined from aluminum.
The brief was to make a small tabletop candy object from a 500 x 500 x 250 block of 6061 aluminum using the Haas Mini Mill in three weeks.
Course
IPD 5010
Team
Mark & Shreyas
Timeline
3 weeks
Process
Mini Mill · CAD/CAM · 3D print
01 · concept
Fun and instantly recognizable
I like animated films and cartoons, so we started by sketching characters from a few favorites. After some quick ideation, Pingu felt like the right direction: playful, recognizable, and just challenging enough to make as a machined object.
02 · v1
The first CAD tried to mill the whole figure from one block
Version one assumed we could machine the full form by flipping the stock. It looked plausible on screen, but it was awkward in the Mini Mill vice, hard to mount cleanly, and the machining time was already pushing past what the project could support.
03 · v2
Splitting the body made the object manufacturable
The second version became a front-and-back assembly. Each half could be milled separately with higher fidelity and less setup drama, then aligned and put together with dowel pins as one finished object.
two-part body drawings
scale prototype
Before milling, we 3D printed a full-scale prototype to check the body proportions and stance.
We kept the beak and feet separate from the aluminum body and planned them as PLA press-fit parts. That made the main machining simpler and we could create different beak sizes and shapes to give Pingu a bit more character.
04 · machining
Milling the two halves
Most of the work lived in the relationship between the split body, the fixture, and the Mini Mill. Each setup had to preserve the same reference logic or the two halves would never feel like one object.
02
Probe and align
Mark checking the probe position after the stock was installed so the orientation and hole locations stayed consistent across the CAM setups.
03
Rough and finish
The curves were adjusted around the available tools. Switching from a 1/8 inch ball end mill to a 1/4 inch ball end mill saved time while keeping the surface close enough.
04
Machine the second half
Each half needed its own CAM and careful tool numbering. The goal was getting both halves to meet cleanly.
05 · finishing
Polish, blast, assemble
We introduced contrast with two finishing processes
deburring and polish
The front belly was polished to keep a bright contrast against the softer blasted surfaces.
sandblasting
Masked the belly and sandblasted the body and head helping hide the tool marks and create a more uniform surface finish.
06 · learnings
What I would change next time
- ·Asymmetric forms are unforgiving: the body halves, holes, and fixtures all had to line up cleanly.
- ·Separate CAM files made tool numbering and setup discipline matter more than expected.
- ·Shallow fixture holes introduced chatter, especially when the acrylic plate did not register perfectly.
- ·Mini Mill stock orientation changed the whole setup strategy.
- ·Acrylic fixture holes should go through; tapped holes did not always match cleanly and created small gaps.
07 · final