For the first week we were asked to begin thinking of things that we would like to build for our final projects. These are not definate projects but rather ideas that we can begin to move forward from and figure out what we would like to incorperate into the final project. I love to build crazy, and fun things. That is part of the reason that I want to have a career building props for the entertainment industry. With the evolution of rapid prototyping technologies and new methods of constructing props, I want my final project to incorperate several things. I would like it to include a circuit board, something 3D printed and something cut with the laser cutter. Each of these things are becoming needed in the evolving industry and slowly becoming standards.
For my final project I had two ideas. The first is creating a Lightsaber. This would allow me to incorperate a custom circuit board that would control lights and some simple sound effects. This project would also allow me to use some parts printed from a 3D printer as well as some parts that could be cut and etched with the laser cutter.
Here is a picture of one of the current designs that I am considering using. The design was modeled in Solidworks and would be created by cutting acrylic tubing on the laser cutter to create the ribbed portion of the handle while the other parts could be made using a 3D printer. The circuit board for the "blade" and sound effects would be housed in the hilt so that it could be taken out if any adjustments needed to be made to the programing.
The second final project idea was to create a working Mini Sentry from the video game Team Fortress 2 (TF2). This idea is more involved than the Lightsaber and it offers challenges that use more rapid prototyping and digital design skills. The Mini Sentry would have several motors and a motion sensor that would find and track movement. This project would incorperate laser cutting, 3D printing, a circuit board and digital design.
Here is a picture of the front and side view of a mini sentry.
Here is a picture of the Sentry's head that I modeled in Soldiworks. The model can be put into a program called Pepakura, which is a paper craft program that breaks down 3D objects into flat surfaces which can be printed on paper. The prints are then cut out and put together. The legs and most of the stand can be cut on the laser cutter as well while other parts can be made of PVC pipe.
