Design for Manufacturing Project: CNC Milled Aluminum "Treasure Box"

Our most important design requirement for this project was achieving a running with for the diamond and dowel pins in the box, so that the top could easily be placed and removed from the bottom. Because of a mix-up with the reamers when machining the bottom of the box, we ended up having to use two dowel pins instead of a diamond and a dowel. This meant that tight tolerances and proper running fit clearances were especially important to ensuring our box was functional.

After switching to a dowel pin instead of a diamond pin in the bottom piece if the box, we had to use a drill press to increase the diameter of a hole on the top piece to create enough clearance for a running fit between the dowels and the pins. Aside from the switch from a diamond pin to a dowel pin, we acheived the fit that we were aiming for as well as a seamless transition between the top and bottom of the box and consistent design aesthetics.

CAM in Fusion, CNC and Conversational Mill, Tolerance, clearance, and fit calculations, Introduction to GD&T.