CCC (Computer Controlled Cutting)
This weeks Assignment is to design and fabricate a press fit construction kit, A kit of parts design to attach together with no glue or fasteners held together with only Friction to make multiple shapes it easy to think about hard to design but i will give it a shoot, My inspiration came to me as i was thinking about my final project i needed a good way to prototype and build the endoskeleton so i was looking at 80/20 aluminum extrusion but i found it to be a bit expensive to buy or ship in Egypt and thus i thought of it as the perfect project for this week so i started researching all different types of aluminum extrusion and there hardware and started designing
Tutorials and Helpful sites:
- You tube
- http://makezine.com/2012/04/13/cnc-panel-joinery-notebook/
- http://makezine.com/magazine/tutorial-laser-cutting-techniques-and-projects/
- http://www.inkscape.org/en/learn/tutorials/
Software Used:
- Inkscape
- AutoDesk Inventor 2012
- OpenSCAD
Project: A-Tech Structure Rapid building blocks
Goal: Build a kit to quickly prototype structures
Files For this Assignment can be found here
Let The Dance Begin
Starting at Inkscape to design the parts of the beams in 2D so learning Inkscape as you go is kind of difficult but learning with a goal makes it a lot easier
Starting with readying the Environment i enable the grid by pressing the '#' button
Now using basic shapes in combination i start sculpting out the shape
and after placing the objects at the right X,Y coordinates using a bit of math and some boolean operations i was able to create a part with 1 side
Now for the connector pin openings
X,Y math and Boolean Operation Gives:
and now initializing the grid
now after a bit of work using almost the same operations Shapes started to emerge
but stopping there for me was not going to be good so i also imported the files into autodesk inventor for 3D visualization and virtual Assembly to build some virtual Structures and to test the geometry
and after assembly of the 2D parts
and now we have a 450mm long straight beam Boring, but now lets add the connector pin
Assembling the beams with the connector pins in this fashion
and now i can build
But i am not Stopping there how about building a Hexagon, Drawing a 120 deg Beam is no big deal now
And So:
Now comes Fabrication, We have a MORN Laser cutter that uses the MORN laserworks software to communicate to the Laser Cutter it takes DXF files so after exporting the files form Inkscape you can cut them but before cutting the real parts i had to cut a small test piece to make sure that the press fits are snapping together nice and tight
using 3mm material my 1st trial allowed me to find the Kerf of the laser cutter by looking at the kerf table and then measuring the difference thus the right amount to compensate for is 0.09mm and thus i was off to cut out all the parts
And after a successful cut
and now assembly
after assembling the individual Beams now comes the joint making a right angle
And that's it for this week there is a lot of thing that i still need to tweak in this project but nonetheless it came as good as as i expected and i am seeing myself using it in several project including the ROSADP Project