solar ashtray

This ashtray project was a small undertaking that didn’t require much planning. I only started it because a colleague modelled an ashtray in CAD and needed help with production. While I was helping him make his ashtray out of acrylic glass, I decided that I wanted to make one myself. Despite never having smoked a cigarette in my life, I started thinking about what an ashtray really needs. Essentially, it just needs a bowl for the ash and a place to put your cigarette, and it must be made of an unflammable material. Sticking with the moon, sun and star theme that I try to incorporate into my designs, I modelled a moon-shaped ashtray and a 12-star design. However, I decided against the 12 sharp edges, as this would make it look like an ash shuriken. This isn’t usually an issue when milling, but I had the wrong cooling liquid in the machine. It didn’t evaporate immediately after being applied, leaving a big puddle inside each of the two ashtrays. It didn’t damage the machine, but it took me more than an hour to clean up the greasy aluminium shards. I chose aluminium because I don’t currently have access to glass manufacturing — I could simply use the spare aluminium I had to make two ashtrays to give away as gifts.