7. Housing Design and Fabrication

Posted April 11, 2024

After finalizing all the Electrical requirement and the Board fabrication which the core of my project I need now a good representation for this core which can be a sleek piece on the corner or in the middle of the setting area which can’t go wrong when the person eye come to it and it attract the others attention.

Previously I have decided to use ARABISC look on the front of the piece. LINK

fullpack by AbusiniZaid on Sketchfab

This is what I was thinking my final look would be 3 months before, But now I think I will change a bit.

Lets go ahead now and start designing the housing but first of all I need to agree on what exactly I want to do.
First of all I will keep the Arabisc look on the front.
Then I need to make sure my piece thickness not to exceed 45 to 50 mm

This means I need to extend my wood –> Because the thickness of my wood is Only 17.5 mm (Two pieces combined are 35 mm I can exclude some surfacing so its gonna be around 33 to 34 mm ).

As a result of my wood thickness the Idea of having a PCB Enclosure came up in my mind and also I had another issue which is how I’m gonna have MY parts attached to each other.

This solved for me two points (Having Enclosure for the PCB); First point how I’M gonna attach the two wood pieces together so in this way I can design a slot mechanism and 3D print it much easier than wood milling solved this for me. and I can attach the 3D printed part by fasteners with the wood.

The second point is the thickness of the wood I can now Increase the thickness by just adding this piece in the middle and its very simple in the way of attaching it.

Then I need to make the diameter no more than 120 mm.

Now After listing all of these important points I can start designing the piece.

For more information about how to use ONSHAPE to design please refer to this LINK.

I will go fast in the designing process as most of the tools are repeated and I have explained them previously.

Let’s Start

Design

I will first of all start with making my sketch on OnShape and draw my Arabisc look.

Arabisc sketch

More Information to How to sketch this please refer to this LINK

Then I will Extrude this pattern by 5mm.

Extrude the pattern

Then I will start a new sketch and build the frame.

Front piece frame

Now I will extrude the frame with the same thickness of my wood piece.

Front piece frame extrude

Now I have the front piece done.

Front piece Done

Then I will Add some fillet to the Arabisc on the front piece.

Front piece fillet

Now I will start building the front piece of the PCB Enclosure which is gonna be connected with the front wooden piece by fasteners.
I will sketch it on the Back of the front wooden piece.

Front PCB Enclosure

Then I Will extrude in separate steps one for the frame and another for the PCB stand.

First the frame

Second the frame

Now I will sketch the place where the USB C piece will be fixed, In addition to the slots gonna fix the PCB.

USBCHOLD

Slots to fasten the PCB

Now I will sketch the holding the Mechanism for the PCB Enclosure together.

Slots to fasten

Then I will add holes for the fasteners to hold the Printed piece with the wooden piece.

Holding Holes

After I extrude remove I will chamfer the hole to make sure the screw is sinking in the 3D printed part.

Holding Holes chamfer

NOw this part is ready.

Enclosure front ready

Now I will start building the second enclosure part.

Second part sketch

Then I will extrude it.

Second part frame extrude

Now I will create a sketch on the top of the frame and project the holes for the slots I have previously created on the front piece to reflect the exact position.

Sketch of the slots second piece

THen I Will extrude the slots and make sure they are aligned with the holes on the first part.

Slots aligned

Then I will make the holes for fastening the enclosure with the back side of the housing.

Holes done and chamfered

Now this piece is Done.

Second Piece enclosure

Now The PCB Enclosure is Done

Now Let’s continue to the back side part of the wooden piece.
This part is gonna be exactly the same as the front part but without the arabiscs JUST some holes for the sensor to breath.
I will start with a Sketch.

Final Sketch

Then Extruding the frame.

Final extrude

Then Sketching the backside of the piece and Extrude it.

Final extrude backpiece

Then sketching the holes and extrude them cut.

Sketch holes

holes Extrude cut

NOw This piece is done.

Backpiece Done

Now the entire housing is done.

Housing Done

This is only the upper part later on We will design a stand for this part

AllHousing by AbusiniZaid on Sketchfab

Raw Files

STL
IGES
ACIS
STEP
OnShape

Fabrication

I will Start by fabricating the PCB Enclosure.

3D Printing

For more information about how to use the 3D printer and How to prepare the printer in details please refer to this LINK

I will use Cura slicer to slice the files.

1st part

Then I will use the following settings to print.

1st part settings

I will use here fine quality in terms of layer height to have a good finish and I will use 75% Infill to make sure the part is solid.

Then I will slice and send it to the printer to print.

Before print

Now sending it to the printer.

After the printer is Done.

Printing finish

Now I will prepare the second file with the same settings used for the first part.

2ndpart slicer

2ndpart slicer estimated time

Now sending it to the printer.

After its Done.

Printing finish

Both Printing finish

Now Lets try the mechanism of locking and unlocking.

Now Lets try adding the PCB and check how it looks.

PCB in Enclosure

The other side of the part.

PCB in Enclosure

Great the PCB is well fixed in place and it has also some space far from the frame which will ensure a good amount of air inside the housing.

Now lets try and connect the PCB and check.

PCB in Enclosure working

Very nice it looks awesome as the transparent PLA looks great with the lightning.

Wood Milling

Now I will fabricate the wooden pieces of the Housing.

At the beginning I wanted to avoid using wood and the milling process because I know it’s not an easy process and it takes time and effort specially my piece needs to be fabricated from both sides which means I need to flip the piece and mill it from the other side which needs precision and well alignment.

I will use SRPplayer to generate the G-code, Which I have previously used before and explain it carefully follow this LINK.

Now lets Import the STL file.

Importing the file

Here I will make sure to align the machine coordinate with my design coordinate.

Then I will start by flipping the piece because I want to start the milling from the bottom then I move to the top.

Flipping the piece

THen I will choose the milling type I want. –> Here I will make sure to choose the quality over the speed.

Milling type

Then I will set the primary settings for the tool path before I create it.

Tool path primary settings

The Profile I will be choosing is (Wood - SOft) and I will set the wooden piece dimension (140 X 150 X 17.5 mm ) and I will align the piece to the bottom.

Tool path primary settings

Now I will create the toolpath and then I will edit each tollpath alone.

As seen I will have 4 toolpath 2 for the bottom part and 2 for the top part.

Now I will edit each toolpath alone.

Edit the toolpath

Now I will change the settings for the rough profile and change the bit size to 6mm and change the other bit settings.

1st roughing toolpath

1st roughing bit

1st roughing bit settings

Then I will change the finishing profile for the bottom part.

1st finishing bit settings

Then I will move to the top part and change the bit settings but I will keep using the 2mm ball bit for both the Roughing profile and finishing profile.

top roughing settings

Then I will change the settings for the finishing profile.

top finishing settings

Now Lets preview the toolpath for each profile.

bottom roughing preview

bottom finishing preview

Top Roughing preview

Top finishing preview

Then I will output the files to be then imported to the machine.

Output files

Now I will prepare the bed and the machine.

Output files

I’m using Double face tape to fasten the piece on the bed

After finishing the bottom part fabrication.

Top part done

Now there is two holes created by the application for me to align the part using them when I flip the piece.

aligning holes

Then I will flip the piece and make sure the holes are aligned.

I will do the aligning part using my naked eye because I’m using double face to hold the piece on the bed.

flipping the piece

Then After this I will continue the fabrication process.

flipping the piece

And here we go the part was so successful Alhamdollelah.

First Piece Done

Now Lets MOve to the second part.

This Part is so easy to fabricate as its gonna be only from one side.

Lets Prepare the Tool path

I will Import the file to SRP player/

Import the file

As seen the file is quite simple and easy to be fabricated as it have only one side to mill and some holes to drill.

I need also again to make sure the coordinate of the machine and the software are aligned.

Then I will choose the mill type.

Mill Type

Now after choosing the milling settings I will need to create the tool path and set the wooden piece dimension.

Create toolpath

Now I will start editing the tool path and enter its settings.
I will start with the roughing profile.
I will choose the Bit first (6 mm ) then I will add the settings for the profile. –> I will make sure the cutting amount are less than 1mm on this high feed rate so the spindle load is not too high which might lead the machine to stop.

Rough settings