#fab2018

For this week’s assignment, we had to mount a motor. I was thinking of things that spin when I remembered the chore chart that my roommates and I have. Right now it’s written on a piece of paper and we have to re-write it every few months (see photo below). We’ve been talking about how we should make a prettier one, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Also, how cool would it be if it turned automatically every two weeks?!

First, I designed a file in illustrator for our chores:

I tried to make a fun shape for the inner spinning part, but I had trouble getting it to look how I wanted, so I decided to stick with a simple circle. This was also for the best because I was designing this at home without looking at the servo motor and when I got back to school I realized that the hub is not perfectly in the middle.

Cardboard test:

Cutting the wood:

The wood front piece fit snugly on the motor, but I added some tape on the back as a precaution. Then I hot glued the name piece to the small plastic propellers that came with the motor kit.

When I went to put the magnets on the back of the motor, I got worried that they seemed to also stick to the motor and I got worried it would mess up its functioning. So I cut one more - this way it was also more stable.

I texted a photo to my roommates and they were VERY excited :)

This week our assignment was to fabricate something using primarily two materials. The only rule was that the materials could NOT be acrylic or plywood (unless we made our own plywood).

I wanted to make a book end for my bookshelf at home and started brainstorming different ways to do this. I also really liked the brass that we looked at in class so decided I wanted to find a way to incorporate that. In my internet searches for inspiration, I found this simple bookend design that I liked so decided to make a similar design out of brass and some other material TBD.

I found some brass strips at Blick and then needed to find a heavy material to weigh them down with. I liked the idea of using a stone, tile or brick, but they didn’t have any and the hardware across the street didn’t either. As I walked back to school I scanned the streets of Manhattan for loose bricks or rocks, but didn’t find any.

When I got back to school however, my friend Dana had a lump of clay that someone else had given her. She didn’t want it, so I decided to sculpt it into the base for my bookend. I used a piece of wire to cut it that I had stripped with wire strippers:

Then I bent the brass strip into a triangle shape and stuck it into the clay. I used another piece of wood to make the bends at the ends:

I had two other brass strips and had initially planned to add them, but I liked the minimalist look:

Because I can’t fire it, it will crack as it dries, which I’m excited to see!

I think it looks nice next to the plants!

For my enclosure I wanted to make an enclosure to go with my PComp final. For that project, I am making a “smart” bracelet for my grandpa with beads that are designed to have modular functions. At first I was thinking of making a program on the computer that would allow him to reprogram the beads (for example change the “reminder” button from “remind me to do my PT at 11am” to “remind me to water the plants at 5pm”).

But then talking to my grandpa and my PComp professor I started to think that a computer interface wouldn’t solve the challenges that my grandpa currently has with smart devices. Touch screens are hard for him to use and plugging something into a computer and opening the right program can be challenging to navigate.

Designing

I started by sketching some ideas:

I had previously seen boxes on the internet that use the living hinge and I knew I wanted to try to incorporate this, so I looked around for some options that might work and found this box that I liked, had a file I could download and seemed simple enough that I could edit it:

I downloaded the file and in illustrator added the features that I wanted for my grandpa to be able to control the button settings:

I made holes for two dials that can be changed to different settings.

I used icons from the noun project for the light (created by Numero Uno), button (created by emma mitchell) and charging symbols (created by faisalovers).

I’m still not sure about a few of the final design choices, so I made large holes on the sides for potential cables that I will need to charge and program the electronics inside.

I also made three holes to put LEDs through to show how charged the bracelet is (the electronics store I went to in Seattle didn’t have right kind of LED holders I was looking for and I didn’t have time to find others).

Finally, I made a “cradle” on top where my grandpa can lay the bracelet while it is charging.

I was almost ready to laser cut, but then I realized that I needed to resize all of the “puzzle” edge pieces because I had scaled the box and they would no longer fit 3mm wood. Luckily, Emily is very good at illustrator and showed me how to do this relatively quickly

Laser Cutting

I started by trying to cut cardboard, but there was something wrong with the settings and it ended up etching the whole thing. I was running out of time (and patience...), so I decided to go right to cutting it on the 3mm plywood I bought. This actually worked well! I had to run the laser cutter serval times, but it pretty much worked!

I was very nervous that it would break at this point...

When I tried to put it together I realized that some of it didn’t fit together. I had resized the box from the template I downloaded and then adjusted the parts that needed to be the thickness of the wood, but in doing so I had adjusted a few of the pieces the wrong way. 

These are supposed to be the same length!

The next day I went back into illustrator and adjusted a few of the pieces. Then I ran the laser cutter again. This time the pieces fit together, so I found some wood glue in the shop, glued the pieces together and left it to dry overnight:

After it dried, I added the knobs I had found in Seattle and the LEDs to indicate charging. I also found my friend Matt’s LEDs and switch in the junk shelf, so I put these inside to simulate the LEDs lighting up. The last challenge was to find a was to find a way to keep the box closed. I wanted to use magnets, but ran out of time to pick them up. Luckily I ran into my friend Elizabeth who had some velcro and used this with a bracket to create a “latch.” This isn’t very secure, so I think I’ll have to update it for the final version:

For this assignment, I wanted to so something with the edge lit acrylic or the living edge wood cutting technique. I had seen families with beautiful lanterns in Washington Square Park the other day and decided I wanted to try to make a lantern. I started by googling a bunch of designs:

I found a template online that I thought was reasonable to start with since I felt very intimidated by the laser cutter. I took a trip to canal plastics to pick out some colors I liked.

When I put the template in illustrator, the sizes didn’t match what the specs said. I had to resize everything, so I decided to redesign it into a shape I liked better. I made only 8 side panels and made it look more like a pumpkin:

I also wanted to re-size the top and bottom and in an attempt to simplify the design I took out the notches.

I first tried laser cutting one top piece with some scrap acrylic I found in the shop:

It turned out well so I cut the rest of them:

The slots on the side panels were a little loose, so in order to make them fit better I decided to re-cut the top and bottom with notches to make them fit better. This took a little while to re-design the illustrator file.

Throughout this process I got a lot of help and support from other friends in our Fabrication class - thanks everyone! Here’s Hannah hanging out with me vy the laser cutters:

Finally I glued everything together:

I wanted to add side panels, but I ran out of time. I talked to Mark and Ben and they had some ideas of how to add panels - I will try to add them next time!

This week our assignment was to make multiples. In thinking about what to fabricate, I thought about constructed objects that I like the design of. One of the first things I thought of was Incan architecture - I love how the blocks fit together seamlessly:

This summer at a family wedding I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube with my cousin’s kids (I think Liam was upset that I figured it out before him…):

I was thinking about if I could somehow make a wooden Rubik’s cube and found some wooden puzzles online. 

I chose a simpler one with only three pieces and found a few patterns on the internet and a youtube tutorial.

This seemed do-able and based on this, I drew out some diagrams for my own:

I went to Home Depot and found a piece of pine that was 2.5’’ wide which I thought was an incredible find because my puzzle pieces had to be that same width, but when I looked at the schematic online again I realized I had misread it and I need the pieces to be 2.25’’ wide which meant I needed to make another cut.

I decided to try making one puzzle first before diving into making multiple. I started by cutting the pieces to the size I needed on the band saw.

Then I measured out the inside cuts:

John helped me a lot and showed me some tricks for making my pieces. I had been planning to cut everything on the smaller saw outside the shop, but I found this harder to control and he showed me how I could alternate making the larger cuts with the band saw and then cut out the pieces with the smaller saw.

Step 1:

Step 2:

For the “O” piece I couldn’t do this and had to drill a hole in the middle and then cut out a rectangle:

The first pieces I made broke when I tried to drill too close to the edge I had cut (John had recommended drilling holes in the corners so I could more easily maneuver the saw) and another broke when I was trying to fit two of the pieces together and got one stuck:

At this point I was worried I would have to choose a different thing to make!

This is when I realized that making a wooden puzzle would be more challenging than I had thought because the pieces have to have tight tolerances. I decided to make this a little easier for myself by making the tolerances a little less precise. I also realized that the pieces would fit together better if I sanded them to make them as close to the same size as possible.

Even after I cut them, I sometimes had to make small adjustments by filing down the inside cuts or shaving off a bit more with the saw.

I thought about making all five of each type of part at once, but because each puzzle had to fit so precisely together I decided to make them one at a time so that I could ensure that they fit with each other. I also tried using the pieces I made earlier as jig...

I got a lot better at using the saw and making curves! I figured out a technique to allow the scroll saw more easily cut corners:

I was so happy when they finally fit together!

Above, Hannah modeling the puzzle.

Finally, I wanted to paint them to give them more color and add clues for how to put them together, similar to Rubik’s Cube. I found some paint in the shop and painted the sides:

Here they are all assembled again:

And with their individual pieces: