I've been spending the past week getting ready for all the summer workshops I'm teaching. No two are alike, of course, so it's been taking quite a bit of prep time. One of the teacher workshops is on Advanced Technology at the local technical college. In one of the sessions, the participants get to make a notepad holder using a CNC machine (computer numerical control). Actually running the CNC machine doesn't take much effort - you put in the material, push the button, and then watch the machine cut it out. Takes about 15 minutes, leaving hours of dead time while you watch the other 19 participants make their notepad holders. (boring) So this year I decided to make up a little tutorial for people to do showing how to write the program to run the machine. It's kind of cute, because there's an option to cut out the holder "virtually" using bright green and yellow stock. Trouble is you have to create the picture below to be able to get the cute picture above. We'll see.
