17. Wildcard Week¶
- Design and produce something with a digital process (incorporating computer aided design and manufacturing) not covered in another assignment, documenting the requirements that your assignment meets, and including everything necessary to reproduce it.
What I Chose Todo¶
For wild card week our lab decided to do wood turning to make a pen and then use the laser cutter to engrave the pen.
Making the Pen¶
Picking Wood¶
The first thing that we did was cut our block of wood that we were using. Our teachers gave us multiple choices for wood and I went with one with many lines in it. We were also required to chose diffent colors of wood and glue then together.
Gluing the Wood¶
To glue the wood, I first used the bandsaw to cut the wood to make all three sizes to match 2 inches. This is because the inside tube is 2 inches long.
Safety¶
Then after we picked our wood we got our safety gear on.
The safety gear includes:
- Safety glasses
- Ear covered
Then after the safety gear was put on we began with a quick safety lesson with the bandsaw saw. Once I measured where I should cut, I lined the wood up and cut the wood. It was very easy to do.
Wood Lathe¶
After the cutting of wood, we moved onto the next machine that’s called a wood lathe. This machine holds the wood and spins it while a drill bit goes into the wood. Typically we would have used a drill press but we didn’t because we would be using this machine again later for turning the wood and we needed to learn how it worked.
To use the machine:¶
1) Set the block of wood that you are using in the one end of the machine that has to corner clamps
2) Use the tightening tool to make it as tight as possible and as you tighten it, you have to make sure that the drill is lined up in the middle of the wood. - It was very important to make sure you take out the piece that tightens the machine because if you didn’t it would fly somewhere and hit someone. I accidentally did that and luckily it didn’t hit anyone but I learned this that way
3) Then set move the bit about 1 inch close to the end. You didn’t want it too close because otherwise it would rub and that’s not good.
4) After the drill end was set to the 1 inch, then you move the base holding the drill bit all the way to the piece of wood
5) After that you turn on the machine and set the speed as close as you can to 700. My speed was 689
6) Then on the side there is a little wheel that you turn and as you turn it the drill goes deeper and deeper into the wood
- If the drill didn’t go all the way through, then you just need to repeat the last two steps and move it closer
7) Then once you finished, you needed to turn the machine off, loosen the back part and removed your wood
This is the machine that I used for the drilling
Problems encountered with this machine:¶
The main problem with this machine is that if you don’t make the wood straight in the holder then the hole would be drilled sideways. This could cause a problem when adding the brass tube into the inside because the tube wouldn’t fit in properly.
Gluing in Brass Tubes¶
The next step was to glue in the brass tubes that will be needed for the wood turning and to make the pen. We used super glue and then smashed the brass into the wood. THen we sprayed on some stuff that makes the super glue dry faster.
Picture by: Amalia
Wood Turning¶
After the glue was dry than the I could began turning the wood on the wood lathe and this time I used the chisels for wood turing to make the block of wood be an oval shape. The important part of this is the amount of preasure you put onto the wood. If you put more preasure, the more wood you take off but you risk breaking the wood. I broke my wood the first time I did this. You also want to pay attention to the angle. The smalling the angle the more you take off. I recommend a bigger angle with a good amount of preasure.
These are the tools that I used.
When adding the wood onto the machine we needed to make sure ever thing was tight. We used wachers to make the spinning easy with no rubbing and we used a special washer that made the wood as tight as possible. As you can see in the picture we are tightening it because if you done then the wood would spin while the machine is spinning meaning that when you try to lathe it, it wouldnt work. To fix that you tighten the washer as much as possible so the wood doesnt spin on the spinner piece.
Sanding¶
While the wood is still on the wood lathe machine, I used sand paper to get the wood extra smooth. We used many different sandpapers. I started with 400 grit and then worked my way all the way to 3000 grit sandpaper.
Putting the Pen Together¶
To put the pen together we used a kit. We used a pen press to make the pen. There are many parts that can be seen in the instructions. There are also the steps to mae the pen on there too.
Photo by: Amalia Bordoloi
This is my pen before the engraving
Engraving¶
After the wood was all sanded down, I needed to engrave the pen using the laser cutter. We used a ratary engraving machine that connects to the laser cutter that turns the pen as it is being engraved. I used this withthe help of Noah Smith and Andrew Puky. Below is what the machine looked like and I got this image from Amalia Bordoloi.
Finished Pen¶
Below are some pictures of my finished pen.
This is an image of my pen after engraving and the finish product.
Reflection¶
This week was a fun week becasue we got to chose what we wanted to make. I enjoyed making something simple that I could use in the everyday life. THe hardest part about making the pen was the shaving down the wood because it took a lot of time and I had to be very careful. Other than that, I enjoyed making a pen and I can’t wait to give it to my mom as I do with all my fab projects I make each week.