Mechanical Design, Machine Design
Goal
Design a machine that includes mechanism + actuation + automation + application, build the mechanical parts and operate it manually and document.
My team decided that our machine was going to be a cookoo clock in function, but a lion's head with a chicken as the bird that popped out at every hour interval. We divided the workload, and my portion of the project was the designing of the lion head. As you will read, the ultimate product designed by me that was completed was the house and the clock.
Designing the Lion Head
Using the software Blender, I began designing the lion's head. I had to make the top part of the head/skull and the jaw seperatly to accomodate the movement. All of joints and cavaties to fit the motor was done by my team member, Dan Collins, but the rest was done by me.
In Blender I used an assortment of tools such as the pinch, smooth, thumb, draw, layer, and inflate within the sculpt mode. I first sclupted the head, then added another sphere to sculpt the jaw.
I also added two cubes and reshaped them into thin rectangular prisms to add to the top of the head for hanging it. Using the boolean modifier I combined these shapes with the head. Then adding two cylinders, I used the boolean modifier to subtract this shape from the two previous rectangular prisms. This created two arms that would enable the clock to be hung on the wall.
Realizing this may not work :(
Sadly, the final lion's head design which we intended to 3D print would have taken about 30 hours, which sent us past the deadline. So in the final stretch of time on Tuesday, we decided to redesign the clock completely.
Designing the New Cuckcoo Clock
We decided to redesign the clock into a design that is closer to an original cuckcoo clock, with the house design. We figured that the fast and best way to manufacture this would be to laser cut the design out of wood. I used Adobe Illustrator to design the house using the rectangle tool and the pen tool. I made the stroke of each line .028mm to ensure that the Epilog would recognize the lines to be cut. I then designed the clock on the fac of the house, making the stroke my desired thickness and using a special font for the numbers so it would look asthetically pleasing. Our goal was to stick the LEDs through the wood to hold them in place, and for that I made the holes .048 inches at every hour interval. I was careful to also make these lines as a stroke of .028mm. I took a free lion svg design to put into the middle of the clock, since our school mascot is the Wheaton Lyons. I designed the door big enough so that the chicken could be seen peeking through wwhen the clock stuck another hour, about 40mm. I added the details of "FAB ACADEMY 2023" to fill the awkward empty space on the front of the clock. Also for team pride!
Laser Cutting the Illustrator Design
Using my fablab's Epilog laser cutter, I cut the design out of plywood. Using the predetermined speed, frequency, and power settings for both engraving and cutting.
Assembly
The house was assembled using hot glue to the halfway point, so that we were able to add the elcetronics and motor when they were done. In the mean time, I colored the 3D printed chicken. Once these components were added, it was glued together completely, although leaving the roof detached for easy access just in case adjustments needed to be made.
