Week 2

Computer-Aided design

For this second week i able to design and print with the laser machine for the 2D part on my end i used a software called RD works to engrave but usually i use Coreldraw or illustrator. So below are the product that was able to make using these software. First i downloaded the potrait of His Excellency, the President of the republic of Rwanda PAUL KAGAME for engraving purpose so here below i opened it in inkscape:

Usually I'm familiar with the engraving and laser Cutting, basically usage of the laser machines so for the better engraving of this photo i have to first to change into a black and white picture and remove the background then save it as picture file either jpeg or png but png is better because of its quality. So i select the picture go to the right side and click on Trace bitmap, then i raised the threshold to 0.460 and applied changes to the picture

After editing the picture, i imported this to the rd works software which at this time is acting as the controller for the laser.

The result you need to be outputted by the engraver is what indicates the settings of speed and power and also putting in consideration the type of material to be engraved on, which in this case is MDF (medium-density fiberboard), a 3MM type of board made from very small pieces of wood that have been pressed and stuck together.

I used 500mm/second as the speed for engraving as for power i used 25% of its full power then i started engraving, As for Cutting the power and speed on this particular machine be set to 100% of it's cutting power and a 10mm/second of speed.

After 30min it had finished engraving, so below is the final product before cleaning.

the cleaning process is mostly for dusting off dirt with sand paper slowly scraping off and then cleaning with paper towel.

The final product

3D MODELLING

For modelling ironically i had a client ask for a checkers board which gave me the idea for making this as an assignment for this week, so i started off by using solidworks as my 3D modelling software, i choose it because i had used beforehand and also due to its user-friendly interface and intuitive features. So i started by doing a sketch by selecting Top plane, sketch then selectcenter rectangle, drag from the origin to draw a square of 25.5/25.5CM, go to the toolbars, features, then Extrude boss/base the square to 3MM due to the thickness of theMDF, i will be using then i clicked OK. Next i clicked on Extruded boss/base,then selected the top surface, selected the corner square, to create a sketch of 30/30MM, then i put a distance of 7MM between the horizontal and vertical edges then clicked exit sketches then extruded it to 1MM but under where you add the height of the extrusion untoggle the merge resultsbutton to be able to extrude another square next to it. added the color to the square by going to the right of the workspace to Appearances/Scenes and Decals then selected a creamy high gloss plastic.

Next in the commands manager, i used linear pattern feature, with its window open, under Direction 1, i selected the vertical edge and for the second Direction 2 i selected the horizontal edges, then set the spacing to 60MM and the squares, i made them four on each direction then i clicked ok to apply the feature

I drew another square of the same size and shape right next to the first one i had drawn then extruded it then repeated the whole process by adding color and more squares using <Appearances/Scenes and Decals and linear pattern feature. At this point we had just created designs for the horizontal side now i repaeted it to make the vertical side too to complete this checkers board. After this i added a wooden texture to the base of the board to finish this. I then saved the files as firts solidworks files then as DXF to put in the coreldraw which is used as a 2D software and and has a plugin to use the laser cutter reason why i saved the 2D dxf type file.

LASER CUTTING & ENGRAVING

After saving the file from solidworks i exported it in coreldraw to be able to print it on lasercutter machine. The lab is equipped with a 24"x 12"(610 x 305mm) epilog laser, so after importing the svg file i arranged the file on the board as shown below, then after organizing the files on workspace i sent the files on the with the parameters shown below also. Also there’s a point to be made about the pieces, i first downloaded silhouettes of an elephant and the lion too then i made then i traced the photo in illustrator rather than coreldraw due to good quality of tracing by the illustrtor so i opened illustrator, imported the picture above and then selected the picture went on to the right side of the workspace, click on save as then choose a placee in control panel, under properties, there’s quick actions, under it, click on Image trace then choose default then Expand. Now sometimes yo may need to do two more steps like here in this case, next step will be to click on ungroup, then go click on release, then you can separate the image and use it to your satisfaction, after this you save then choose a place to save and save the file as svg. So the files i used will be added in the section at the bottom dedicated for files

the final product

After putting together the design, i sent it to the laser through a plugin controller of coreldraw. Regarding the material i used a 3MM MDF sheet of material, so i place it on the machine bed, you focus the laser pointer on the material correctly, remove the item that helps us to set the focus then pressed start

Below are the pictures of the pieces cut by the laser and also below i will be showing in the short hero video of the process while cutting, below are the pictures of the pieces cut before assembling

For assembling i had to first glue together the engraved on piece with other two circle of it's same size using AKFIX GLUE in order ot give it a height of 9MM for it to be something that's holdable. I proceeded with glueing the checker board with its contour which gave the final product you see below.

Short hero video

For the short hero i would like to mention that i had a few videos so i used the VEED web to add them together to make one video which is pressented below.