Week 3
Fold-Press-Fit Construction Kit
Software: Inkscape (0.91)
Materials: Paper, 2mm Cardboard
Paper cutter: Silhouette CAMEO, 12X12 inch mat,
Silhouette Studio V3 (Cut setting: Speed 3, Thickness 20, Blade 3)
Laser cutter: EPILOG Zing16 30W (Vector setting: Speed 100, Power 45, Frequency 2500Hz, 500dpi)
In addition to the snug fitting joints in a press-fit construction kit, I wanted to create rotatable joints and make the constructed shape dynamic. That is why I decided to use the “Spring into Action” origami as joints in my version of the kit.
I made the data for the spring joints using Inkscape. With the cloning feature, any changes you make on the main object will be reflected to its clones. It's useful when you want to adjust the joint’s size when using another material with a different thickness. First, I tested out the data with paper using a paper cutter (vinyl cutter) to make the creases and cut the paper. After saving the vector data as dxf I opened it in silhouette studio. Though I had changed the creases to doted lines (Object Fill and Stroke Stroke style Dashes), that wasn't reflected in silhouette studio, so I edited the creases again by right clicking the data and selecting Release Compound Path. Then I selected all of the creases and changed the Line style. I also cut the cardboard with a laser cutter to make the spring joint but it was too thick, so I decided to go back to paper.
I used the laser cutter to make the flat cardboard joints in the shape of a circle, triangle, rectangle and a ring with several arms at different angles. The spring joints and flat joints are connected by pressing the paper through the ring (rather forcefully). I made the ring small enough so that the flat joint wouldn’t be too loose when attached to the spring joint, but also big enough so that the spring joint can be pressed through. After attaching one flat joint to the spring joint, I noticed that the flat joint was pretty loose so I added another ring of cardboard to make it fit more properly.
With my construction kit I made two examples.
