1. Project Management

Research

In this week focused on 2D and 3D modeling, the basics of new modeling were learned.

Computer-Controlled Cutting

This week, we worked on cutting a design in vinyl and laser cutting, taking into account the kerf, which is the amount of material lost due to the thickness of the laser.

In the case of vinyl cutting, a blade was used to make the cuts, ensuring precision in the design contours. The process of measurement and calibration was carried out to achieve precise and high-quality cuts in both methods.

Vinyl Cutting

To create the design, the software Inkscape was used to obtain an SVG file for the vinyl cutter.

To create the design, I searched for an image of a headphone drawing to use as a guide. Inkscape allows the use of layers, so you can use a background image as a guide.

To recreate the design, I created two arcs and removed the inner part. The inner arc should be smaller. Then, by selecting the nodes at the ends and using the node editing tool, I joined the ends to obtain the following image.

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To create the next figure, we can use the rectangle tool and curve the edges to simulate the connection of the headphones.

Finally, for the lower part of the headphones, you can use the rectangle tool and curve the edges. Then, with the ellipse tool, create 3 closed segments and join them to the rectangle to form the headphone part. Using the duplicate tool, place the last set on the other side by rotating it.

This would be the result, and the file should be saved in SVG format so that the machine can recognize it.

Steps to Use the Cutter

Turn On/Off: Press the power button.

Start Machine: Press the "home" button to access the home screen.

Load/Unload Cutting Mat

• Place the mat with the arrow pointing inward.
• Ensure the material is on the adhesive mat without covering the black edges.
• Press the button below "home" to load or unload the mat.

Load Files

• Use a USB with compatible files (PHX, PHC, FCM, PES, SVG).
• Insert the USB into the machine's port and select "retrieve data" to find and select the file within the USB.

Edit Files

• Select the file and adjust its position on the grid if necessary.
• Use the "Edit" option and drag the drawing to the desired position.

Once everything is set, select continue, and the machine will start working.

The drawing turned out as follows:

Laser Cutting

Basic tests were conducted to determine the kerf and proceed with a more complex design.

For the second part of the task, my idea was to create the skeleton of a dinosaur. To get a base idea, I searched for dinosaur puzzle ideas on Pinterest and used the image as a background guide in Fusion, using the sketch tool with lines and curves.

In Fusion 360, go to the "Insert" tab and select "Canvas", then select the plane and load the dinosaur skeleton image. Adjust the size and position of the image to fit your workspace.

In this image, you can see an example. The idea is to follow the same procedure with each of the bones in the base image. For larger parts, it's better to mentally divide the bone into two parts to make drawing easier.

Once we have a base to work on, it's necessary to use other tools to minimize errors, starting with using Fusion's constraints. We used the parallel function to find symmetry for the joint spaces, and based on the kerf tests, it was determined that a good joint space is 2.28mm.

To create the dinosaur's spine, one way is to use Fusion's scale tool, selecting a piece, such as a vertebra, and adjusting it to be smaller or larger. Then, adjust the joint space to 2.28mm to ensure a proper fit.

To make it parametric, it's necessary to avoid this adjustment always. One test to perform is to use the scale function on the entire design and observe how the different pieces behave. Another idea is to perform this scaling while keeping the 2.28mm parameter constant to ensure the joints.

Finally, the idea of creating a base is to make two configurations where the dinosaur skeleton is the same, but we can interchange some pieces, such as the head, to have different dinosaurs.

Problems with the Laser Cutter

The first issue was that the software for the laser cutter wouldn't install correctly on my computer, and I received the following message.

Once I managed to use the software on another computer and convert my files to the required format, the laser cutter did not recognize my file.