17. Wildcard week¶
Introduction¶
Background info¶
Initially I wanted to try working with composite materials and designed a special mold for the fenders of my Vespa. Unfortunatelly all the shops and marketplaces were closed by the law and the lab wasn’t able to source anything. So we had to work with what we had in our lab. The good news is that limitations are also opportunities for innovations and great ideas. Cardboard recycling is as straightforward as it sounds although it has huge potential which I might explore more. Particularly I’m very interested in creating molds for cardboard or pulp furniture for kindergartens. Saying that 2020 was tough year is saying nothing. This was a hard time for the world and for Armenia particularly since we had a full scale war as well during which we lost many good friends and relatives.
I have done the design part while pandemic shutdown but after coming back to the lab I decided to change it. But I will keep screenshots from that project on my page. After coming back to the lab I started doing my wild card week assignment to design and produce something with a digital fabrication process. I like paper recycling Ideas and start working in that direction. First I design the mold, then print it after start recycling procedures. Actually I have done some bioplastic stuff as well.
Lockdown experience¶
So making the mold is my major task. Because of the pandemic, we don’t have access to the lab that’s why I have done only CAD and CAM part. Here are all steps. first I designed the rear fender. Because of my work and my profession I am pretty familiar with this kind of process and know a little bit about even if I haven’t known, that is a very simple process that can be done after few tutorials. So let’s go on after having the fender ready we need to design the mold. Our mold will have two parts top part and bottom part. the molds have to have the tapered faces and they need to be in one direction to let the part go out from mold in our case it will be a fender. All design process took only 4 steps by cutting and combining (join) the parts. also not forgetting to offset the top part to have a place for the paper. In this design, the gap is 3mm and as a result, the thickness of our part will be 3mm as well. Also, I added some holes for letting water go out from the mold (recycling paper is a wet process). the mold will be made from MDF on the shopbot. Also, I have done the CAM part in the fusion’s manufacturing workspace using pocket and parallel toolpath. For the pocket, I gave 1mm max stepdown and 50% tool’s diameter stepover and for parallel, I gave 0.5mm stepover. Endmill for the pocket is 16mm diameter and for parallel is 10mm diameter
Back to lab¶
Design¶
First of all, I need to design a mold in which I’m going to put the material in our case that is recycled paper or bioplastic. I’m going to make an organizer for the lab. As usual, we are starting the design from a sketch which is a very basic drawing with 5 rectangles. then I extruded it with a taper angle to make the removing process easier. after these two basic steps, there is a time for the third one to add the fillets. Filets are making the final product look better and making the molding process easier as well.
Mold making¶
because my mold is not so big it can be 3d printed as well. The infill of the mold is 0, the thickness of the wall was 5 layers. that are pretty strong settings for such a basic model. It took around 9 hours to print.
Bioplastic from gelatine¶
As I was interested in bioplastic as well I ask Azniv Hovhannisyan to make to help me with preparing the bioplastic. Actually I was helping her in that process because she had more experience with the bioplastic. so we take
- 240ml water
- 63g gelatine
- 19g glycerin
- Food coloring (optional)
and heated till 95C while constantly mixing. Then we should leave the solution a bit until bubbles are gone and fill into the mold. But we didn’t wait because we didn’t have enough patience and were scared that it will cool down.
First, we fill up my mold then Aznive’s mold, then we realize that it was too much gelatine, and start filling up all the molds that we found in the lab. I remove the organizer from the mold after one hour it was still raw but it was okay.
Paper recycling¶
After we start the process of paper recycling. for that procedure we need
- blender
- any kind of paper
- rice
- water
1.The first step is breaking down the paper into smaller pieces.
2.The second step is to cook the rice
3.Put the paper and rice into the blender add some water just enough for stirring the mixture
4.Fourth blending the mixture until getting a smooth mixture.
5.The fifth step was the worst one we need to squeeze the mixture. and that was let’s say unusual.
after squeezing we can put the substance in the mold. actually when I start filling the mold understand the mistakes and the tricks that can be used for paper recycling molds but I worked with the mold which I made and with the hope that it will work.
After all the procedures described above, I put a piece of MDF on the mold, put some clamps on it and left it 15 hours.
when I open the mold I discovered that there it is steel wet and decided to put it in the oven. I set the temperature 60 degrees C and keep it one hour. one hour is not fixed but I didn’t have more patience. After taking out the mold here is what I found.
After removing the mold from the furnace, it became obvious that 60 degrees C is too much for PLA plastic; it was damaged.
Conclusion¶
In conclusion, I want to say that next time I need a different type of mold for paper recycling with removable walls and inserts it has to be like a constructor.
Files¶
2024 Experience¶
For the past two years, I have been hosting our Fab Lab’s wildcard week at our factory and acting as an instructor since plasma cutting and metal shaping are part of my daily work. I also participate and lead community days and open days at Fab Lab Armenia.
Me introducing to 2023 Fab Lab Armenia students intricacies of metalworking in our Margaryan Brother’s factory.
Me presenting about molding and casting to local community kids in Dilijan.
In our factory, we run wildcard processes on a daily basis, such as all types of welding. We also make dies for metal forming using hydraulic presses and perform multi-axis machining (milling and turning). All these capabilities of the factory were introduced to our students and guided by our best machinists and welders.
In the future, I plan to document some additional projects related to the Fab Lab on this website and share our factory experience with the Fab community. This will show how Fab Academy has influenced my skills as an engineer and, since 2024, as a project manager.
I decided to stick with my 2020 experience and not add anything new. I also want to mention that my 2020 experience with cardboard recycling became an interesting starting point for further experiments with molds for recycled paper and environmentally friendly flower pot production in our lab. This idea was further developed by our Instructor Babken.