Machine design
Weeks 11
News about the project
It has been about two weeks now that the project is going on. If you want a little reminder of what we're doing, here's a link to Mechanical design week. At that point, we decided to separate de tasks based on our main interest but also strength. I've always been more about design than coding. It seemed then obvious that I'd go on working on electronics integration and designing the casing of that zen garden. I'm not going to complicate myself that much in that design. I want it to be functional and simple but also I'll try to think about the finishes. As a former fashion designer, finishes are always very important even in prototyping. To me, it is as much part of prototyping than any other phase of my design process. This said, there two main things I should really think about doing designing that casing:
I guess you've already understood that my collegue will be in charge of the coding and programation of the machine.
Designing the case
First thing I need to do is to define the maximum distance the axes can reach in X and Y. As I want to make it very tight, because I find the machine to big already, I'll had only an inch on all side :
To plan the outside of the box, I used MakerCase as a base.
Then I modified it a little to make the side parts finished, to drop the top part by 1,5" and also I cutted de top and bottom part in half to make it fit in the laser cutter. To make them one again, I'll use some plastic screw that I 3D printed. I used 3D printed screws to anwser that problematic of having a magnet on top of my mahcine.
Finally, I needed to connect those separated top and bottom part. So, as you can see in the lasercut plans, I made some rectancular parts that are going to do that job. I made them in acrylic for better strenght.
This is pretty much everything I'll need to build the casing. I'll add to that a silicon paste so nothing can go through and that's it!
Building it
Once everything is planned, this phase is king of simple. I'll describe it in point form :
Final result
There you go! Now, I have to what for programmation. But in the future, I'd like to finish it with some 3D printed paws at the bottom so it doesn't screw your floor or table and also paint it with ultra mat paint. I'd like to make it so black it looks like a black hole with white sand in it. Put that is going to be another project. I don't have time anymore.
Updates
During global evaluation, I received the comment that it's not possible to see what's the machine is actually. At first, I didn't understand why but then, I read it again and well ... yes, there no way to see what it is. Even if incomplete, I've made, I think a good integration and machine design. So, the deal was to complete the documentation so we can see what's the machine is doing and look like and also to update the Lab page, which is done too. I'll also present another video of the machine later on as we agree with my global evaluator. Still, I enjoy working on this a lot !. Here some updates in pictures that make it more comprehensive.
To put words on these photos, the machine as an X and Y axes that are the MTM kit develop by Nadia Peek. It's integrated into a machine that is designed to draw in the sand using a metal ball and a magnet on top of one of the axe. It'll use G-code to make simple shapes on the sand. Here's a video!