The assignment this week was in 3 parts. First a group assignment where we characterize our lasercutter,
making test parts that vary cutting settings and dimensions. Than the individual assignment is to first cut something on the vinylcutter.
The second individual assignment was a big one but it was to design, lasercut and document a parametric press fit construction kit,
which can be assembled in multiple ways.
The group project is documented on our group website.
I broke my phone a few weeks ago and it is hard to find a cover for it here in Iceland,
so I decided to make a sticker to put on it that would hold the glass together a little bit better.
I did not want it to be too plain, so I made a diamond shape and copy pasted it a lot of times.
Then I used union to make the diamonds not cut over each other.
Then I turned off the fill colour, made the outline colour red and made the outlines 0.02mm in width.
Then go into file, document properties, and then resize page to content and resize page to drawing or selection.
Then save it as a pdf.
I then took a leftover piece of silver vinyl to cut.
When I turned on the vinylcutter it is automatically turned on roll,
which is most common to use but because my sticker is small I decided to use some of the leftover material we have.
I then had to press the up button until I found piece.
Then I go to the computer press print, then properties and put in the size of my product and press okay.
Then the vinyl cutter cuts it out.
Then I must pick out the parts I don’t want to be a part of my sticker,
then I put transfertape over the sticker.
Then I scrape over it from the middle to the end, make sure there are no bubbles left under it.
Then I pick up the transfertape with the sticker and put the sticker over my phone.
This is a video in Icelandic abot how to use the vinylcutter.
I made the parametric press fit kit in Fusion 360.
To make it parametric you go into modify and press change parameters.
To make a new parameter press the plus on user parameter and name the parameter and tell how big it should be, there is no problem changing it later.
To change it just go back in change parameter and change the expression.
I named my parameters thicknes and depth, thicknes for the thickness of the material and depth for the depth of the slots.
Then I just drew a few different shapes and extruded them to the thicknes parameter.
Then I had to make the kit ready for Inkscape so to move it over from Fusion 360 I choose the plain I want and create a sketch.
Then I find the sketch in the browser, right click it, and create a SVX. Then just open the SVX in Inkscape.
To prepare it for the lasercutter I do the same thing as I do for the vinylcutter. Turn off the fill colour, make the stroke colour red and make the stroke style 0.02mm. Then save as pdf.
The lasercutter is fairly easy to use especially after using it a few times.
Here is a picture of the instructions we have on the wall for the lasercutter so just follow the instructions.
Then in the computer go to print and properties, make the speed, power and freq. right for the material.
Make the page fit over the picture and then press ok.
Then the lasercutter is ready to cut it.
This is a video in Icelandic about how to use the lasercutter.
Now it is ready to play with and I tried out a few ways to put together my press fit construction kit.
Making the diamonds union was a lot of work, I thought it wouldn’t be this hard but for some reason it wasn´t working on all the diamonds.
On my first try it did not work for any of the diamonds, on my second try it only worked on one row and in my last try it finally worked.
But then I wanted to union it to a rectangle around it and it did not work.
In the end I changed my design to just rectangles and no box around and it worked fine.
The problem with putting it on the phone was making sure it did not go over the camera and I always have a problem with making things straight, so it was very crooked on the phone, but I like it that way.
The sticker was also a little small for the phone and it started peeling of the same day, so I have to say it was a fail this time but hopefully will work better later.
The problems I had with the press fit construction kit was first there was one slot that for some reason wasn´t parametric,
I did make it parametric but when I changed the parameter it wouldn’t change with it.
So I just made a new slot and it is working now. I also had problems moving it from fusion 360 to Inkscape but all the units would move fine over but one.
It just wouldn’t appear so I made a new unit and it worked fine.
I had some problem with compresing the photos because I do not know how so I watched this video to learn how to do it in Gimp.
I also watched
this video to learn how to do parameters and how to move files from Fusion 360 to Inkscape
Fusion 360
- For 3D modeling.
Inkscape
- For prepering for lasercutter.
Microsoft Photos
- For photo editing.
Gimp
-For photo editing.
Fusion 360.Press fit construction kit.
Inkscape. Pdf press fit construction kit. Ready to cut.
Inkscape. Svg press fit construction kit.
Inkscape. Pdf sticker. Ready to cut.
Inkscape. Svg sticker.
