Assignment 3
Brief
Group Assignment
- Characterize your lasercutter's focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, joint clearance and types
Doing those kerf tests showed how much a laser can really blast away even with the super precise beam, and is a much more legit workflow than my usual - 'Lets make 5 different types of fits, change a dimension inbetween then finally arrive at a good result.' Making this connection to a calibration file would be good to make sure a machine (like my 3D printer) doesnt drift over time as well.
Individual Assignment:
- Design, lasercut, and document a parametric construction kit,
- Accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways, and for extra credit include elements that aren't flat
- Cut something on the vinylcutter
Laser cut construction kit
I opted to make a brutalist customisable press-fit kit. All of the components will have 90 degree edges but would allow the tinkerer using the kit to assembly it in many ways.
Design
I used Fusion360 to design a single panel. My general steps are as follows: 1. Make the general shape of the single unit using rectangles and converting unused geometry to construction lines
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Extend the edges with finger joint like edges
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Allow for finger joints to be inserted at multiple angles
Throughout this process I used the Parameter window so that I could change dimensions after the fact (and actually used a 2.6mm kerf which was defined in the variables through a collection or 'Material thickness' and various fit dimensions), a bit more snug than what we found, but that was desirable for my press-fit kit.
Laser cut
We used the Trotec Speedy 360 at the Lake Mac FabLab (not the Speedy 400 we have at Core) 1. Convert the sketches to a .dxf file 2. Remove unwated cuts in Trotec Ruby
XXX TODO: PHOTO HERE
- Send the laser cut job to the laser
- Verify 2 fit together
- Make a larger QTY of them!!
Vinyl cut stickers
The FabLab had a high quality printer that we used to print onto sticker sheet, then the Roland CAMM-1 GS24 did all of the cutting.
- A logo and node identification cards were imported into a new file
- I panelled it out using the place/link tool onto an A4 sheet within the Reg Marks provided by the Vinyl cutter extension in illustrator,
- Rough cut lines were created using the Curvature tool
- Printed it out on a glossy vinyl sticker sheet
- Loaded the sticker sheet into the Roland, making sure that the rollers are within the white zones. Then clamped it down.
- We then jogged the cutting head onto the front left black reg mark
- We imported the illustrator file into the CutStudio software for the Roland, verified the cut lines and clicked 'Ok' in the cut window to start the job
XXX TODO: VIDEO HERE?
If I were to do it again the placed illustrator files would be flattened into the file and the outlines expanded for a uniform distance on each sticker (with the white space removed so that a tree could be made with stickers)
