Skip to content

18. Wildcard week

This week i wanted to learn more about, cnc 3D milling in big format, and how to used thermoformed machine.

Modeling

For this assignment I designed some figures just to recreate a final mold for “cakes” for example… To model it, I used Rhinoceros as other practices I have done. Here you can see the process:

But I thought it was so simple, so I tried with other more complex

Finally i didn´t like the result so it was the moment to open again Grasshopper plugging to create with some random!!

I created just this definition to colonize a box with those random points inside where I placed spheres…

This is the result

Here are the files:

Milling process

The process of milling a 3D was better as I thought. We can see this assignment week8 where you can see the configuration about my machine. And the process is the same as we can test in the precision milling machine with the was blocks. 2 steps, one for roughing and the finishing.

I have used:

- 6 mm universal mill for roughing
- 6 mm ball nose end

Now it is turn to open VCarve again and generate our wood block 20x20x20cm and import our .stl file.

To optimize time and material, now you have to introduce manually the “ground level” of your piece. In may case I up it just to the limit of the milling.

The following steps are: - Select the type of milling (rough or finish) - Select the type of mill ( Universal or ball nose end) - Change the parameters of the machine for each type of milling and it depends of the type of material, in our case it will be fiberboard Because i didn´t used it before!! and I want to test what happened.

This will be the paths of both process:

And here a video with the programing demo:

Here a picture while milling.

And here the machine working.

This is the final piece

Thermoforming process

Before of the process I have applied an unmolding spray, because my wood is a fiberboard so porous, so I am worried about the unmolding of the plastic sheet, so I used a wax-based unmolding spray as you can see here, recommended for plastics.

Here is the video with the machine working. I have preheat the plastic sheet 100 seconds Finally this is the result wit amazing finished

Now I have remove the extra plastic, because I just need the final part, and now I can use it as a mold to reproduce the piece in different polymers.

Testing my Final Project

Now I am going to use the machine I have design in week8 to generate the skin of my final project.

I finally decided not to use polypropylene rope because I want this project be as natural as I can using the less plastic components as possible. So I used natural fibers rope to achieve the same skin. But in this case instead of using heat to weld the fibers I am going to use white glue. This is normal glue used y carpenters.

I have include this easy mechanism with some taps bathroom stoppers and some nuts to press the inflatable ball.

So I prepared the machine, and cover it with an unfolding based on soap and water because it is easy to find wherever you are.

The problem here was that the unmolding liquid made the ball slide down and I was colocating the ball in the correct position every round.

It is not finished and now I am waiting for drying. I will applied more glue, and maybe more rope to achieve a self-support structural skin.

Here is the finish of the texture in a near view, and the finished ball.

Thank you for visiting

Licencia de Creative Commons
Este obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.