Hex Tile Design

Material will be out of Pine at 10mm thick, index your stock of pine with 4 quarter inch holes at the top and bottom corners (see figure 2.1b. Make sure your CNC design is centered between these 4 holes!!!



Make the hexagons 80mm from side to side. Hex tiles should be about 10mm thick.



Make a pocket in the middle large enough for the game tokens (~26mm dia).



Throw in some grooves along the sides for the "road pieces". When you assemble the hex tiles these grooves will line up and make one large pocket. Road pieces are approx 5mm thick, so make sure that each groove is 2.7mm thick (2.7 x 2 = 5.4.) and at least 2 mm deep. Make sure the grooves are longer than 20mm. Design in some curvature to the grooves because of inside angles.



Create an axis down the centre of your design and design a pocket for the back of the tile deep and wide enough for the magnets (6mm deep x 12.5mm dia for magnets 5.3mm thick by 12.3mm dia). Flip that design relative to the axis you just created. (This will simulate you flipping your material over!) (figure 2.1b)



Program the CNC to rough cut at 1000mm/min with stepover at about 80% of your bit size. When parting slow the machine down to 600mm/min and part the piece out in 3 passes. Do not nest more than 3x10 hex tiles on a single sheet of pine that is 10mm thick.



2.2) Border Frame Design

Material will be Cherry at 19.05 (3/4") thick. Index your stock of cherry with 4 quarter inch holes at the top and bottom. Make sure your CNC design is centered between these 4 holes!!! figure 2.2c



The border piece should be at least 70mm in width and at least 19.05mm in thickness (3/4") The inside of the border frame should account for 3 hexagon tiles. Put in those grooves from 2.1. Make sure that the depth of the groove matches up with the depth of the groove from the road piece (in this case 11.05mm deep)



The puzzle piece joints in fig 2.2b are actually just a bunch of circles at 10mm diameters The Male joint just has the circles packed together at 9.750mm while the female joint are wider at 10mm.



Remember you'll have 6 border frame pieces. Put in the vectors you'll be using for your raised design. If they are simple designs make sure they are mirrored at the edge of the border piece. Have fun and make sure the ends of the design vary slightly than the rest, but make sure that everything touches the mirror axis. (figure 2.2e)



Create an axis down the center of your design and design in a 1mm pocket that will accomdate the sheet metal. Also draw in the pockets for your magnets. Mirror your design around the axis you created! Nest in the vectors you'll be using for raised patterns. figure 2.2d



Create some lines for the CNC to mill slots. Make sure they're about an inch away from the sides of the border piece. figure 2.2d



The material for the Border Frames is Cherry wood, so rough cut at 800mm/min, step over of 80% leaving behind 0.5mm of material. Mill the remaining 0.5mm with a final pass at 600mm/min at 30% stepover. Part with 4 passes at 800mm/min. The puzzle piece joints will be made when the material is being parted. It should be the last process you do.



If you are going to V carve the raised patterns understand that the sides of your raised patterns will be on a slope, the angle of which will be the angle of your V bit. Top top of this slope will represent the vector you wish to make a raised pattern of, however you'll have a 'base' at the bottom of the raised pattern which will have a width based on how tall your raised pattern is and the diameter of your V bit. Just remember to account for this base in step 3 using basic trigonometry.