Weekly Assignments Final Project About me

WEEK 07

Computer-Controlled Machining

How the week started

I was intrigued to start this week as this was something I wanted to try out for a long time, to make something out of wood or plywood. Though my agenda was to design a laptop stand which could be moved around with ease and rotated. I didn’t make it cause it would need other components to do it and I wasn’t ready to design within a short period of time. So that is gonna continue as my dream project.

How the week ended

This week was hectic, I spent a lot of time designing, editing, redrawing, despite burning the midnight oil, I am somewhat unhappy with my workflow. the fun part of the week was being taught about CNC machines, materials, workflow by, Mufeed Mohamed and Revisankar S. I did a mistake of forgetting to turn on the exhaust of the laser cutting machine and it started to fume up immediately. I stopped the machine immediately.

Week 07’s Assignment

Group assignment:

  • Complete your lab’s safety training.
  • Test runout, alignment, fixturing, speeds, feeds, materials, and toolpaths for your machine.
  • Document your work on the group work page and reflect on your individual page what you learned.

Individual project:

  • Make (design + mill + assemble) something big.

Workflow

CAD (Fusion) → Scaled Model Test by Laser Cut → Assemble Model → CAM (Set Tool Path) → Cut → Sand → Assemble Model

✏️
CAD
Fusion 360
→
🔲
Laser Cut
Scale Test
→
🔧
Assemble
Test Model
→
⚙️
CAM
Tool Path
→
🪚
Cut
→
🪵
Sand
→
✅
Assemble
Final Model

Brainstroming designs

Initially I wanted to design something for my cats, a kerf bend cat perch. Something that could be removed and disassembled with ease. Then I stuck to a simple shape without any kerf bends. As I started to design in unfamiliar software Fusion, we were shared a few Fusion tutorial videos (1, 2, 3) so we could get a better hold of the software. It definitely helped me a lot. I chose another project that felt simple initially.

Brain stroming

1 / 5 Inital sketch for a cat stand
2 / 5 I tried to recreate this design.
3 / 5 Sketched the cat house to understand the joins
4 / 5 Understanding the panel joints
5 / 5 There are changes in teh design bu these helped when designing in fusion
Inital sketch for a cat stand I tried to recreate this design. Sketched the cat house to understand the joins Understanding the panel joints There are changes in teh design bu these helped when designing in fusion

I settled down to a triangular cat house, inspired from a Pinterest search. The design looked simple. I came across issues with the model. Finding the order in assembling the model, angle to cut the slot in what a pocket hole is, because the slots didn't go in otherwise.

Fusion - troubled waters

The unfamiliarity with Fusion continued this week, yet got a better hold of it than the last time I used it.

Layout setup

1 / 2 The workspace is hybrid.
2 / 2 This time I faced an issue with the units having a comma instead of the dot, it was confusing, so I changed that by going to Preferences → Unit and value display → decimal point display changed it from 123,454 to 123.45. The unit is still mm. Click apply and click okay.
The workspace is hybrid. This time I faced an issue with the units having a comma instead of the dot, it was confusing, so I changed that by going to Preferences → Unit and value display → decimal point display changed it from 123,454 to 123.45. The unit is still mm. Click apply and click okay.

While drawing the model, I chose the front plane and constructed an equilateral triangle so that all the sides would be equal. I then offset the equilateral triangle to the plywood thickness.

Front panel design

1 / 5 Draw an equilateral triangle 500mm
2 / 5 Offset outside to ply thickness
3 / 5 Creating the front panel
4 /5 Select the shaped to extrude,selectfaces by pressing shift
5 / 5 Extrude the front panel to ply thickness
Draw an equilateral triangle 500mm Offset outside to ply thickness Creating the front panel Select the shaped to extrude,selectfaces by pressing shift Extrude the front panel tot ply thickness

Setting parameters for the thickness helps in adjusting the model to suit the stock we use. In our case, we used 12 mm plywood.

An error to remember

Red Flag: The mistake I made here was linking all my values to plythickness. I thought that by doing so the whole model would automatically adjust, but when I completed the model and applied the parametric change it affected the model a lot. Some constraints were missing and the geometry shifted.

From this I learned to use the parametric value only for plythickness and not for other measurements. If needed, I can create another parameter with the same value but give it a different name.

I designed the front face on the front plane and extruded the areas I wanted. The extrusion thickness was set to plythickness.

I added the side panels. I initially took a more complex approach to draw this. I extruded from the slot in the front panel and then extruded it sideways to create the side panel. After that, I had to combine the bodies.

This could have been done in a simpler way by extruding directly from the first sketch. In the dialog box, set the Extend Type to "To Object". It is also better to change the Operation to "New Body" most of the time; otherwise, the body may automatically join with a nearby body, which we do not want.

This could have been done in a simpler way by extruding directly from the first sketch and then using Modify → Combine → Join.

Perforation

This is one step I am glad that I learned. When two objects are connected by a slot, we first select the blue body. This is the body that needs to be perforated.

Go to Modify → Combine. Select the target body (the body to be perforated), and then select the tool body. There can be more than one tool body.

Remember to check "Keep Tools" so that the tool body remains even after the cutting operation.

Perforation setup

This is one step I am glad that I learned. When two objects are connected by a slot, we first select the blue body. This is the body that needs to be perforated.

1 / 5 Go to Modify → Combine. Select the target body (the body to be perforated), and then select the tool body. There can be more than one tool body.
2 / 5 Remember to check 'Keep Tools' so that the tool body remains even after the cutting operation.
3 / 5 Go to Modify → Combine. Select the target body (the body to be perforated), and then select the tool body. There can be more than one tool body.
4 / 5 Go to Modify → Combine. Select the target body (the body to be perforated), and then select the tool body. There can be more than one tool body.
5 / 5 Go to Modify → Combine. Select the target body (the body to be perforated), and then select the tool body. There can be more than one tool body.
Go to Modify → Combine. Select the target body (the body to be perforated), and then select the tool body . There can be more than one tool body. Remember to check 'Keep Tools' so that the tool body remains even after the cutting operation.