Simple CNC Two-faced Trivet
Simple design tools make it easy to create great-looking projects fast.
Two-sided trivets with intersecting cuts on each face are typically made with straight grooves routed at right angles to each other using the router table. More interesting designs require custom templates or special jigs. That’s where a CNC router comes in handy—it lets you skip the template and jigs, and go straight to cutting. A CNC cuts straight lines, angles, and curves with ease. This frees you up to focus more on the design and less on complicated cutting. A two-sided trivet makes a good design exercise because some combinations don’t work well together (Watch for these pitfalls, page 50). For me, figuring out what combinations work is part of the challenge and the fun of working with a CNC. It took several revisions to get the size and spacing of the stars and circles just right for this project. Because you can preview the end result in the CAD software before cutting, you reduce the risk of wasting material.
The Offset Vectors drawing tool copies the selected shape, and enlarges or shrinks it by the amount in the “distance” field. Use it to offset the star shape inward by .625" to create a smaller inner star, and outward by .875" to create a larger outer star.
Note: It’s okay that the outer star extends beyond the material (white) area. The large star gets trimmed back in a later step.
Draw lines from the centerpoint to the tips of the small star and a .25"-radius circle at the center.