Computer-Controlled Cutting

Goals

Group assignment:

• Do your lab’s safety training
• Characterize your lasercutter’s focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, joint clearance and types.
• Document your work to the group work page and reflect on your individual page what you learned.

Individual assignments:

• Design, lasercut, and document a parametric construction kit, accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways.
• Cut something on the vinyl cutter.

Prior Knowledge

Since CAD week just finished, I count that week as preparation. I spent part of freshman engineering learning how to operate a laser cutter, and pre-Fab gave us projects since, so I doubt I will encounter any sort of learning curve.

Projected Timeline

• Wednesday
  • Nothing (flu)
• Thursday
  • Vinyl cut
• Friday
  • Start group assignment
• Saturday
  • Sweet 16 and school dance (break)
• Sunday
  • Finish group assignment
  • Start individual assignment
• Monday
  • Finish individual assignmment
• Tuesday
  • Correct prior documentation

Actual Timeline

• Wednesday
• Nothing (flu)
• Thursday
• Vinyl cut
• Friday
• Document
• Saturday
• Sweet 16 and school dance (document)
• Sunday
• Write terms and definitions
• Monday
• Joint test
• Start individual assignment
• Tuesday
• Correct prior documentation

Laser Cutter

Specifications

These are the settings for the Fusion Maker. The dimensions are 48’‘*30’‘.

Safety Training

We reviewed the steps to operate the cutter. The cutter and fans must be on to begin. This involves sending the job over, jogging the cutter, using Auto-Focus, and pressing Play.

The instructions that I follow for each cut are drawn from the workflow I wrote during Engineering I.

Vinyl Cutting

We needed to vinyl cut our own stickers, and since I was absent on Wednesday, I spent Thursday catching up and learning the process.

Software

I used Sihlouette studio and pasted my screenshot of the design. I decided on a sunflower.

• Prepare file
  • Open Sihlouette Studio
  • Open .svg design file
  • Trace
    

Angel Fang helped with the Quick Trace feature. I learned that I could simply select my trace area and trace the object, then delete the original. However, I was confused what to do from there, since the layers did not seem to be working. I tried creating an .svg on CorelDraw instead, which technically worked, but as it turned out I needed to trace at one point directly in the cutting software. I re-did it and it worked.

• Cut
  • Place vinyl on mat
  • Load cutter
  • Cut by fill color
  • Send to cutter
    

Amalia Bordoloi walked me through this, having done it the day before. I encounteered some confusion with cutting the design on the wrong colored vinyl due to not being sure which color the machine was cutting. As it turned out, one has to separate the colors after tracing and delete the original. I cut four colors - yellow leaves, an orange outline, a brown inner circle, and a lighter brown circle surrounding it.

• Transfer
  • Peel stickers off of paper
  • Cut out transfer tape square
  • Place parts on transfer tape, using scraper throughout
  • Transfer from tape to wall
    
    The process was easier once I understood what was happening. Scaling the square to fit the stickers while being convenient required some consideration. I also found transferring the sticker design to the wall, especially the thin outline, time-consuming. Still, it was a rewarding process.

Group Assignment

I was in a group with Andrew Puky, Amalia Bordoloi, and Elle Hahn. I was assigned terms/definitions and the joint test. I referenced the documentation of Collin Kanofsky, Kabir Nawaz, and David Vaughn.

Individual Assignment

Since I never experimented with the polygon aspect of Fusion 360, I decided to make a hexagonal prism. This entails two hexagons and rectangles connecting them with a tab on each side. With the convenience of parameters, the only challenge lies in aligning the hexagons and rectangles properly.

Creating Shape

• Create parameters

  • Tab length/width
  • Rectangle length/width
  • Kerf
    

• Sketch shape

  • Create edge polygon
  • Divide side into thirds
  • Create two symmetrical inwards tabs
  • Extend down

• Pattern

  • Create circular pattern
  • Click center point for center
  • Apply quantity of six
    

This process took multiple iterations of trial and error. I realized my errors throughout, most notably my first one: creating chamfers at the bottom corners as opposed to the top. I then decided that chamfering in general overcomplicated the process and creating right angles on each side helped me in the long run. Also, the circular pattern feature certainly helps. With that in mind, without changing parameters, constraints, or dimensions before creating the pattern, one spends more time undoing the pattern than they do with the rest of the sketch.

• Create rectangles
  • Create 2-point rectangle with same width as hexagon, different length
  • Use tab parameters to create outwards tabs to match those of the hexagons
  • Duplicate
  • Mirror tabs across sides and delete outwards tabs, flipping them inwards
  • Duplicate outwards and inwards tab twice to get six rectangles total

This process required trial and error. Since I would realize I needed to change a parameter or shaping issue only after creating the pattern, the repetition was key.

Eventually, I created shapes that I was satisfied with. I considered other documentation and modified the tabs to be narrow for a proper fit. I also found creating mirrors and applying symmetry crucial during the process.

Cutting

- Download as .cdr
- Click correct plane
- Ensure hairline cut throughout
- Modify preferences to cardboard
- Send to laser cutter
- Start cut, following safety precautions
- Take out when finished

When accessing my file from CorelDraw, which normally works, it only showed up as lines. Zaina Gibrine helped me, suggesting that I choose the profile plane I sketch on. I used to keep front, the default plane. I tried top and the file worked perfectly.

Also, the hexagon burned on the first try. I re-cut in order to fix this.

Mr. Dubick noted that I needed more pieces, so I cut a smaller version. While the sides fit each other, even though I scaled everything down proportionally, the hexagons did not fit the sides.

I re-cut to fix the issue, cutting a larger version this time for convenience by uniformly using a scale factor of 1.5 about the origin.

• Assemble
  • Attach sides
  • Attach faces
    

I finished the design for both and stacked them as a decoration. The hexagonal prisms look a bit like a building.

Reflection

Group Work

The most challenging task here was to understand the joints and the designs that they correspond to. While making the Fusion 360 design required some precision, laser cutting did not take long as I understood the task.

Positives

During a busy week for academics while catching up from consecutive absences, finding time became the greatest challenge. I am surprised with the momentum I’ve created these first few weeks. This experience and the existing files will help with my design process.

Negatives

I am not used to the system of tabs and found that I need improvement in fitting them. In general, parametrics is one of the tools I see myself using less, I’m more familiar with rectangular patterns to fit the pieces properly.

Takeaways

I need to work out the CAD details for my final project. I recognize the difficulty of using CAD for purposes beyond experimentation and will be keeping this in mind for future weeks.

Advice

• When vinyl cutting, use the computer that is connected to a vinyl cutter, not one on the desk. While I’m sure that one can export the file, I found it far easier to create it there and cut directly. You can also make changes between layers if you choose.
• Fusion 360 sketches translate seamlessly to CorelDraw for cutting. Having never tried exporting a Fusion sketch before, I already find it much easier and faster, and it only takes an extra 30 seconds to change the file format
• When making sides that alternate between inwards and outwards tabs, be sure to prevent the outwards tabs from breaking. I suggest putting all the inwards sides first and then adding the ones with outwards tabs.

Files

Fusion 360

Parametric Construction Kit
Joint Type Test

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Last update: April 5, 2025