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Session 11: Design Your Practice Build

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Session 11

Design Your Practice Build

One Full Rep, Before Real Stakes

Design, program, cut, evaluate — the whole pipeline, on something small, before Week 5's real client brief.

The Build: A Shop Parts Tray

A small tray with a recessed storage pocket — genuinely useful, genuinely bounded.

Required Features

  • An outer boundary (Profile)
  • A recessed interior pocket (Pocket)
  • At least one hole (Drill)

Size That Hole Deliberately

Session 7's catch applies to your own design now: a Drill toolpath only makes a hole exactly one bit wide.

So find out what bits you actually have, and size your hole to one of them — before you model it, not after.

Why All Three

One small part, but it exercises everything from Week 3 — the same three toolpath types you'll need for real arcade cabinet panels.

Size Constraint

Fits within roughly 6 in × 4 in of stock — small enough to design, cut, and evaluate all in this one week.

Material Choice

Choose plywood or MDF, and justify it — the same reasoning skill from Session 2, now applied to your own design instead of a hypothetical component.

Two Things to Remember

This is real material choice, real toolpath choice.

Small stakes doesn't mean skip the reasoning — the whole point is practicing it for real before it matters more.

Two Things to Remember

Design it to actually be cut this week.

An overly ambitious design that can't be programmed and cut by Session 13 defeats the purpose — keep it genuinely small.

Next Time

Session 12: Program Its CAM

Turning today's design into an actual toolpath.

'F' → Fullscreen

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Build

Step 1: Choose Your Material

Plywood or MDF — state your choice and justify it using at least one property from Session 2.

Step 2: Sketch Your Tray

On paper or in your notebook, rough out your tray's dimensions: outer size (within 6 in × 4 in), pocket location and depth, and where at least one hole goes.

Ask which bits are available and size your hole to match one of them, so a Drill toolpath can actually make it. If you want a hole bigger than any available bit, that's fine — but plan it as a second pocket, not a drill.

Step 3: Model It in OnShape

Build the part at real stock thickness. It must include a profile boundary, an interior pocket, and at least one drilled hole.

Step 4: Check It Against the Constraints

Confirm your design fits within the size limit and includes all three required features before moving on.

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Checkpoint

Before you move on, confirm:

  • Your design fits within roughly 6 in × 4 in
  • It includes a profile boundary, a pocket, and at least one hole
  • Your hole's diameter matches an available bit — or you've planned it as a pocket instead
  • Your material choice is justified with a real property, not just a preference
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Reflection

Answer these on your own. Reflections are individual, even when the rest of the session was team work.

  1. Why did you choose the material you chose? Would a different choice have changed your pocket or hole design at all?
  2. Session 12 turns this into a real toolpath. Which feature — the profile, the pocket, or the hole — are you most confident you'll program correctly on the first try?
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Submit

Submit your material justification, your sketch, your OnShape part file, and your reflection.

Activity Complete