My first go-round with the CNC was a fairly complex project. It was a steep learning curve, but ultimately, I was pretty happy with how it worked out. The one big problem with it (outside of some wiring problems that fall outside of the scope of this class) was that a support brace that I had built for it fell apart on the subway ride home.
This wasn’t a surprise – the brace wasn’t elegantly designed and was shoddily glued together. I was left with a camera stand that, while functional, sagged a little. This made me fairly nervous for long-term use (I don’t want this thing breaking and destroying my camera). So for my joinery assignment, I decided to fix this problem.
The original brace consisted of two legs that were glued together at an angle. What would be a better way to make these two pieces join? Well, honestly after looking through some of the options that were recommended on the site, it seemed like the best option was just to cut it out as one piece
I designed a new brace based on some of the original sketches, this time arcing them a little bit just for some flair. I made some pockets at the ends, so that the piece would be left with some tabs to slide into the pockets on the original piece.
The new bracket fits in nicely, and friction holds it in well enough that it doesn’t need to be glued.
Simple, functional, done.