Elephant 3-layered-animal cnc/laser

thingiverse

The 2.5D elephant is part of a family known as three-layered animals (TLA). Built from beech plywood, it's sturdy enough to withstand children's playtime. The birch plywood version boasts a naturalistic side-view and prominent grain, making it appealing to adults. Scaling the size requires referencing the width of a foot. A desktop CNC machine built by Stepcraft was used to create this 6 mm birch plywood model with a 1.2 mm flute spiral-toothed cutting tool. After machining, the parts needed only a little sanding and simple gluing together to be complete. A laser cutter could also produce smaller versions of the elephant. Aluminum might be another material option; screwing the parts together could yield tiny key fobs. To explore more animal designs, visit https://www.zenziwerken.de/en/Toys/Animals. Here's how I designed this model: First, I searched for reference pictures online and directly traced vectors using Illustrator. Next, I built the model in SketchUp to review the design before cutting any materials. The circles serve as alignment tools or screw-holes for assembly.