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Week 3-LASERS💥.

Exploring different laser cutters and vinyl cutters was all about this week

.Group work.

We started by understanding the laser machine
First step was undertsanding all factors that have a pin point precision while cutting on a laser cutter,
  • we exlored focus, kerf, rate, speed power and more.
    • what is focus?
  • On a laser cutter the beam of a laser is focused at a point using a concave lens, finiding this point is crucial as without it the lasered lines will be too thick and innacurate
    •
    Looking at the various lenses involved
    Nozzle and air blower nozzle.
    Mechanisms and rails involved in the X/Y/Z motion of the nozzle.
    Small run through about the electronic components
    To find out Focus- we employed a method of using a 90 degree triangle, and making various lines .5mm apart from left to right.
    How this works is that one of the lines out of the multiple lines will be the sharpest. by calulating the hypotenuse of that point to the highest point of the triangle we can accurately calculate (upto.5 mm) the focus point of the laser
    The wooden right angle wasnt very accurate so we used a plywood right angle jig to create it.
    For the sake of cutting ply now, we use a spacer tool to leave a gap of 3 mm(this is not the accurate focus point).
    Experimenting various speed power settings for optimal cut.
    speed- 40
  • power min-30 max-40
  • material - 3mm plywood
    •
    We mad the mistake of making unequal lengths of the two sides of the right angle triangle
    for a proper 45 degree angle at both ends, IT IS IMPORTANT for the triangle to be a isoceles right angle triangle.
    Once we had the jig ready we realised that it was too high, such that the nozzle hit the triangle piece so we removed the bed and placed a cutting mat below and made sure it is level to avoid innacuracy
    Result 1- the top most line was clear but it could get clearer.
  • The triangle was still to high so the nozzle coud not clear it past the last line
    • .KERF. What is kerf-
  • The laser itself has a certain thickness. so if you cut 20 mm square, the dimesions will be off and smaller by the thickness of the laser
  • Finding and accounting for this in your design enhances accuracy of dimensions down to the decimals.
    • For this we used the comb test
    How this works
  • We create a rectangle with multiple line all to be cut, once cut the centre rectangular strips that come out can all be pushed to one side. which will give us the total innacuracy due to kerf. divide that value by the number of lines and you get your kerf
    •
    All centre pieces pushed to one side
    Value coming upto- 2.52
    2.52/8 (number of lines) = .315
    Cleaning our beds and turning off machines at the end of the day.

    .Individual Assignment.

    My concept- My first inspiration, or rather a kick off point after the lectures this week was the geodeisic dome.
    I wanted to create a construction kit using slotted basic forms that can make a dome or something close to it.
    Along with a dome structure i was imagining a a fractal caustics lamp that i could keep on tabletops
    I hoped on chatGPT to disscuss what could be the best shape to create a fractal dome and have varitaion for caustics.
    It suggested a isoceles triangle
    For my caustics lamp my intitial idea was to use WASTE 3mm ply to create my base pieces and then stick reflective vinyl on them.
    Without wasting much time and effort on thoughts and ideas, I decided to "think with my hands" and just start doing it
    First step was to set all parameters on Fusion such that future edits become way easier (CAME VERY HANDY)
    HOW TO
  • . Open fusion
  • . Modify on tool bar
  • . Change parameteres
    •
    WHAT ARE PARAMETRES?
  • To dumb it down- parametres are basically a value or a dimension that you preset and then reference that preset while you design SUCH THAT- once you change the paramtres (It's like a excel sheet) all changes happen co relatively by calculations
    •
    Add parametres ---- give them proper nomenclature ---- add units
    You can also do mathematical operatiions with other parametres that you have already added as seen in the picture above
  • HERE- mat_thk + kerf +Slot_clearence
    • All parameters are added.
    If you see most of my slot dimesnions are co-related to material thickness and base widtch or length. This enables me to change any major dimension, such as base or material thickness. and the slots and angles and hesigh will change
    As you see, when you dimension it, you can name the parameters itself.
    You can also use parameteres on commands
    Parameterized slot dimensions.
    Instead of having hard parameter(slot_depth) with a hard value, I use a relation between the base and a ratio value.
    WHY?
  • I do this because my slot depth now is dynamic, if I decided to change the base dimension in my parameters the depth will change relative to the base and not remain too short or too long
    •
    ERROR- My slot depth expression (tri_base * Slot_depth_ratio) was not working
    This was because two united parameters cannot be multiplied
    As you can see i kept the value with 'mm' units
    To fix it- you can make the value UNITLESS
    All parameters
    Iteration 1
    First iteration cuts
    ERROR-
  • extrmely loose fits despite precise kerf measurement and slot clearance given
    •
    post calculation the slot width should ideally be around 3.3 mm but coming to around 4 mm
    After wondering if while assembling the lenses the focus had shifted, i realised my parameter expression was wrong. instead of subtracting my kerf values I had added it
    Once my slot thickness was correct i started cutting pieces and eith various slot placements and depths and started exploring forms
    All of experimentation AND final project for this week is being done by using WASTE material..
    My plan was to create one basic intriguing form and then repaet those structures around a perimeter using joints
    First Trial joint
    I started exploring and trying out forms with added complexity of joints to see what pans out.
    Initially finalised on this basic shape
    Tried a inclned profile that i could create multiple of and revolve around a centre to create a dome like structure
    My joint was designed poorly with a thin edge causing them to break pretty easily
    Redesigned and fixed this flaw (adds on to the fractal feel as well)
    First self inclining and stable structure
    After having some idea of what i can do, my entire idea of caustics will have to be done after vinyl cutting and sticking each piece on indiviudal modular units, which would be tedious, and i had less time, i decided to change materials.
    I luckily found some used reflective acryllic, i decided to use some of the used side for my project making it easier
    Since i had parameterized well, all i had to do was change material thickness(as acryllic was 1.2mm in thickness) and all my slot dimensions changed in relation to the thickness change
    parameterize well, it saves tonnes of time
    Found out the optimum power and speed for test cuts.
    Added newer angled and placed slots to create a desired form
    Finalised base form to repeat
    Joining them side by side using joints
    Partial final result
    fractal reflections
    Final form
    reflections wall point source
    Final design is intended to be with a point source light
    reflections
    The form felt jarring to the eye, the form had no flow, i thought another element along with it woudl work great
  • Exploring what other element led me to auxetics

    • .Auxetics.

    what is auxetics? Basically, auxetics is a method of smartly cutting a material, such that when stetched, it doesn't thin, rather it expands. they are also called metamaterials https://youtu.be/2tKj7wQtXxY
    Above is a comprehensive video showing metamaterials
    short video showing one type of auxetic (rectangular auxetic)
    My attempt at metamaterials was completely from a blank slate, i did not know how any of this works
    luckily an awesome resource popped up when I search auxetics on the google powered search bar on the fab page.
  • Here I could put specific parameters and choose between two types of cuts and export it as svg. WHAT A SAVIOUR
    • i imported the svg into fusion and made a circular bottom design and overlayed the svg on it
    In rd_works i made the outer line dotted to give the shape some flexibility if needed
    Lasercut cardboard
    The result was not unaccpected.....
  • but not desired either🥲🥲🥲
    • Even though it tore off, you can clearly see it slighyt expandning on one spot. so the hinge itself works I just had to tweak it a litttle
  • I thought of trying new materials
    • Yellow cardstock paper - tore similarly
    Too brittle
    In the fab website- they had used rubber sheets, but I wanted to experminet similar cuts with different materials
    Finally i thought I should try designing square auxetics myself maybe then i can fine tune it easily, I used chatGPT to do so
    (╥﹏╥)Failed miserably(╥﹏╥) https://youtu.be/2tKj7wQtXxY
    Tutorial to try out auxetics on rhino

    .Auxetics on grasshopper.

    (╥﹏╥)The add on is not on mac(╥﹏╥) Improvements in design that i can do
  • . slot angle increment in every layer using parametric
  • . trying out the model on software
    •

    . Exploring machines.

  • .VINYL CUTTER.
    • Trying out Graphtec vinyl cutter
  • We used matte waste vinyl sheets with an angled blade to try out stuff
    • We first took an existing raster image of ganehsa, traced it using graphtec autotrac command and send it to the cutter Software used- Graphtec
    Once cut we picked it using a tweezer manually, (trnsfer tape had lost some of its adhesiveness)
    Final result.
  • .FIBRE LASER
    • A fibre laser is very interesting, with the corrcect speed power and frequency, you cna use it to emboss an 'engraving' onto plastic
  • sounds wierd right.
    • Fibre laser
    software used- SAM light
    Multiple trials of speed and power for optimal and best outcome
  • material - 3mm acryllic
  • .XTOOL.
    • Xtool is very intersting, It works very similar to the fibre laser but is extremly intuitive AND PORTABLE!!!!!!!!
    Not just portable in sense of movement but in sense that it can engrave on any surface, you can carry the machine and place it on walls and any surface.
    First you need to plug in your your laptop to the x took using the provided cable. tutorial to setup-
    https://youtu.be/2SaGcA6qHFo software used- xTool studio
    One excellent feature that xtool studio provides is material selection presets, power speed and focus will automaticlaly be adjusted by selecting desired material.
    First trial on a waste acryllic- (Tribute to Ms. miriam)
    It can even engrave stone??!!.
    result.
    Everything gets engraved😈😈😈😈😈
    result
    while using one needs to make sure the red light and the blue light merge on the surface to create accurate cuts. Using the knob on the side you can bring the head up or down.
    Final fusion file
    Final parametric file on fusion 360
    Download File
    1 mm triangle file
    1 mm acryllic triangle dxf file
    Download File
    auxetics trial 1
    Trial one auxetics fail file(best with rubber sheet)
    Download File
    Focus test jig
    RD works file for making focal length jig
    Download File
    Comb test
    DXF for comb test
    Download File