Part 2 of our group project
The task this week was the second of two parts for the group assignment. As a group, we made the decision to create a 2D plotter using a whiteboard marker. A future opportunity is to make this plotter more flexible by being able to attach different tools in place of the marker.
The tasks were divided on the team members in order to get things done on time. The first part was planning and CAD. Of course, nothing was specific because it depended on the electronics and available resources at the lab. Therefore, the electronics team members were working in parallel so CAD can be perfected. Along with Ahmed Alhaj, my task was to work on the digital fabrication. He took care of the 3D printing, while I worked on the computer controlled cutting using the Shopbot.
First I had to prepare the files on VCarve Pro, where I added all the presets and exported for use at the ShopBot Easy Panel - the dashboard of the Shopbot.
I added the file on ShopBot Easy and screwed the wooden piece into the machine. I had then to sit the x,y and z origins:
The machine then did the cutting:
The main problems we were faced with were:
To view more about the project, please see QBIC Fablab's page.
As a first step, we really hoped we had time to expand the project on 2 dimensions: 1. Having a third access, turning it to a 3D plotter - and 2. Program it to be flexible with different tools, not just whiteboard markers.