Week 3 ( Feb 15, 2017 )

 

computer-controlled cutting

 

 

I haven’t seen or used laser cutter or the vinyl  before.

These were totally new machines for me. this weeks assignment was to design, learn laser cutter test , cut something on the in vinyl cutter, I decided to make  combination of gear structure  (Acrylic) and  a sticker for me to stick on the lap top and as well as in project.

 

Laser cutting

 

I even not heard about the laser cutter before coming to FAB academy. When  I saw some structures and shapes in FAB lab,which are made of acrylic using laser cutter.

I found some interesting shapes in FAB lab those are cut using the Laser cutting machine..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So in this week I need to laser cut some thing.A parametric design. I decided to cut a gear like structure so that I can press fit each other or lock it.

 

I started to design in Onshape.

 

Firstly I draw  acircle with 18 mm diameter.

 

 

 

Next then drew a bigger outer circle with a radius of 25 mm. Which is Concentric to the smaller one I made.

 
 

Then I want to make cuts to look like a gear .So I draw vertical and horizontal lines and attached on the outer circle. I drew horizontal line  3 mm thickness.

The vertical line was 10 mm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the problem when I made vertical line 10mm, It does not meet the outer circle which I made. So I extended and and removed extra parts.

 

 
 

Next I made a circular pattern as shown above. I select circular pattern and then choosed the shape to make pattern.

 

Finally I got the design.

I made in to 3D by extruding the design(by 3mm as the acrylic is  3 mm) and it showed me how it look like.

 

 
 

I generated corresponding dxf format and saved. Then I need to cut my design.

 

Laser cutting my design

 

I Loaded my design (in dxf)in the Laser cut application.

 

 
 

I made  a copy of same . I made  Power and speed to cut  as shown in the above picture. Then I download the design in to the machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I loaded material and press start button on the Machine control button.

 

 

I got my output from the laser cutter as shown below.

 

 

 
 

 

But there was a problem, The pairs are not getting inserted in each other. SO I need to adjust the size of slot.

It was not getting inserted properly for first time.

 

I reduced the size from 3 mm to 2.7 mm to get inserted properly.

 

finaly I got something that is shown here and assembled the press fit which I worried about a lot and I got a clear fit.

It looked like this:-

 
 

You can see my final cut of acrylic design here.

VINYL CUTTING

Using a the one which I used same, program called Inskcape to develop a logo or picture to turn it into a sticker.So that I can paste on my laptop.

Printing My Stickers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by using a printer called Cameo we developed our own sticker.

For that I converted my design in to png file and imported in the silhoutte studio application for CAMEO vinyl cutter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

after loaming the material for sticker and adjusting the cut setting,I started cutting the design.

I tested with both the design I made and cut like this

 

 
 

The top part of sticker was not got properly by transferring. So I decided to go with second one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

What I succeeded