Composites (WEEK FOURTEEN: MAY 6)

Assignment

This week, i will make the same way for the casting and molding but on other material and bigger using CNC and wood. This time i will create a flower design for the composites.

Tinkercad Software

I have used the following items to make the shape.

Sphere

Torus

Streching the shapes to make them long and on to each other as it is shown in the image.

Those shapes will be transfered to holes to be ready for combination.

They are now combined together and show a little bit of the final shape.

The holes as you can see of the shape of X to complete the flower shape.

This is the 3D design of the flower which i made. It is like an outter planet flower which is big. I have used circle shapes as holes and put them on the object than combined.

Download Files

Composites Design

ART CAM

For making 3D toolpath, I am using Art Cam. You can see there is one tool Miliwizard. Open Miliwizard.

You can see a browse option on the left side. Click on the browse button.

Check the X, Y, Z dimonsion to be the same as our design. And we can see two options there which are Centre in Model and Bottom of Model. I choose bottom of model becuase i want to get all my design.

I have selected both tools, the roughing tool with is the 3mm End mill and the finishing tool is which 3mm.

In here, we have to select te thickness of material that we are using making mold.

Here we are calculating the toolpath, after that i simulate the below picture, you can see the final result of simulating toolpath.

In here,we want to save the toolpath. I saved both of them .NC file.

CNC machine

We have to set a starting point by adjusting the machine on the point and set the X and Y to Zero.

The shape is starting to show and it takes long to make.

This is a beautiful design that is ready for the composities. I just need to cut it out from the wood using the same CNC machine.

First I need to put a plastic sticker as a base layer to avoid the material to touch the wood.

The materials that I will use are Resin and Hardener.

This matrial is a liquid synthetic organic polymer used as the basis of plastics, adhesives, varnishes, and any other products. It is very good for creating a very solid material.

The precautions of the materials that will be used are the following:-

1) Avoid contact with skin and eyes, wear gloves.
2) Do not mix the components of the Gedeo Crystal Resin with the components of the Gedeo Glazing Resin.
3) Gedeo resin are not approved for food contact.
4)Do not exceed 150ml of crystal resin reparation per mix.

I will use two cottons and one thick sack for create the composites.

We need to start with a cotton, then the sack then the cotton to make a perfect composite.

I need to mix the two materials 50% with 50% of both to make the final liquid.

Putting the liquid on the sac and cottons need to be sensitive with the quantity.

The best way to put the liquid is by using the hand to reach the hardest spots on the wooden shape.

Now carefully, to cover the composite and wait for it to dry.

After finishing, we need to put t inside the empty air bag to give the final composite perfectly.

Now, we need to open the bag to put the vacuum in it.

We will suck all the air inside the bag and not leaving a single bubble.

while the vacuum is running, we need to reach the difficult places that have air and bubble using our hands and hardly pushing it near the vacuum to remove it.

It is time to remove the vacuum and close the hole in a very fast way for the air not to get inside again.

Better to put sack of sand on the composite bag to ensure that no more bubble appear while it is drying inside the bag.

Now I will leave it for 24 hours and see the final result.

This is the final composite shape which is the flower.

Problems and fixing

I should not put more liquid on the cotton becuase it will never dry. To fix this problem I need to know the correct measurement to put on the cotton to be perfect and dry faster.

Composites Tutorial

This is a very simple guide on how to make composites explained by EastBayComposites:-