On the last Saturday before Halloween, dozens of de LaB friends gathered in Highland Park at the KnowHow Shop for some ghoulishly creative high-tech pumpkin carving.
Guided by our lab-coated hosts, we sawed our pumpkins in half...
...scooped out the guts...
...and chose one of several designs that the CNC milling machine would use to transform our gourd into a decorative pumpkin sconce.
We admit, there was something pretty creepy about letting a robot do our carving work. (Plus we had to stay clear of the CNC machine in action to prevent pieces of flying pumpkin from hitting us in the face.)
But the end results were absolutely amazing, with rich textures and precise shapes that you just can't get from old-fashioned carving.
Here, two satisfied customers show off their creations, which they etched out deeper by hand to let more light shine through. KnowHow Shop also gave everyone LED candles so they could safely hang their lit sconces.
The more advanced carvers took to the laser etcher, where they printed photos of architect faces, like this one of Frank Gehry. Or shall we say SCARY GEHRY???
The party continued into the evening, with a keg of Bloody Bitter English Pale Ale (handcrafted, of course).
Thanks to KnowHow Shop for teaching us about what they do, and for helping us impress all our neighbors with our fancy pumpkins. Let's do it again next year!
More photos are here and here. If you have any, please post them to our Flickr group!
Thank you very much for writing such an interesting article on this topic. This has really made me think and I hope to read more. CNC Machining
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