ENGR 2191 "How to Make" Spring 2020

Process. To construct this laser-cut tool tote, the original tool tote design created for Project 1 was modified in Fusion 360. The thickness of the material to be cut was accounted for, the joints that would join the pieces together were included, and the tote's length and height were slightly adjusted. A drawing in Fusion 350 was made that included a 1:1 scale line drawing of each piece of the tote. This drawing was imported into Adobe Illustrator, and the drawings were arranged in such a way that was compatible with the laser cutter (I obviously do not understand how these devices and software work (I am an art major)). After the components of the tool tote were cut, I gathered images that I wanted to engrave on my tote. I opened these in Illustrator, and created an individual layer for each image/text group. One by one, I laser-cut these into the tote. I had re-positioned the pieces to be engraved within their original pieces of wood, so the engravings would go in the correct ...

For this project, in which we utilized and familiarized ourselves with laser cutting fabrication, I chose to create a Pencil Box for my desk at home.  Initially, my design was to create a set of guitar picks for me and my friends. This design would've featured their initials, a custom design pertinent to their personal taste, and individual engraving.  However, a few things got in the way - with the largest being the 3-D requirement.   From there, I decided to rethink my interest, and found that making a pencil holder for my desk would both look nice for my current aesthetic, and solve my issues of disorganization. Coordinating the design was a fun experience. I wanted to distinguish the appearance without overdoing the approach, and so I decided for an angular indention on the topmost edges of the box. I also decided to make the bottom piece of wood bezel-less; in that, the wood almost cascades down, giving a seamless look.  From here...

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been making a Jewelry Box for my second project in the "How To Make" class. All woodcuts in this project were made using a laser, as opposed to "hand-cut" with machines in my previous project. In this blog post, I will go over the process and result, as well as reflect overall. Process I started this project in Fusion 360, a cloud-based CAD/CAM tool for collaborative product development that combines industrial design, mechanical engineering, and machine tool programming into one software solution. As opposed to the previous project, I spent the majority of my time on the computer, not in the maker space. I followed tutorials on how to adjust my previous tool tote design to make it a laser-cut design. This was pretty straightforward and I learned the basics of design choices for laser cut design. I made it all the way through the tool tote tutorial and was ready to go, but I decided I wanted to be more creative and not ju...

Process           The purpose of this project was to make design changes to our tool tote that would allow it to be constructed using alternative strategies. This time, our tool tote was designed to be cut with the Zing Laser machine. Fusion360 CAD software was implemented again to purposefully redesign the tote. First, the dimensions of the tote had to be changed to accommodate the Zing laser. The thickness of the material was reduced, and this affected most of the design. Next, square tabs were introduced to the design to create an interlocking framework that would hold the completed project together. Finally, I reduced the size of the entire project to allow less material to be used and added artwork to the drawings in Illustrator.           One of the problems that I encountered with this project was that, during the first attempt at cutting the tote parts, the Zing machine malfunctioned. Thankfully, we had the alternati...

This now was the week where I officially dedicated myself to building my aircraft. It did not happen in this project, but the official preparations were made, will will be described in depth. On the 12th of February, we were tasked to make the same tool tote, but using the 2D Laser Printers. Fortunately, this took a lot less machining, which allowed for some more creative design. Design and Fabrication Process The first thing that I had to do was change the thickness dimensions of our original machined tool tote from 0.71in to the panel thickness that the laser cutter uses (0.125in). I also added some flanges to connect the cut pieces together. Making the changes caused some minor geometrical issues in the CAD model, so I needed to fix those. Furthermore, I added an additional part onto the previous design, which was the aircraft stands that will be used to hold up the model airplane that I plan to make near the end of the class. This was how I officially sealed myself into p...

For my second project I decided to deviate from making a laser cut tool tote and instead opted to make a deck box that would be a perfect fit for 100 double-sleeved Magic: The Gathering cards. I choose 100 as this is the size of a "Commander" or "EDH" deck, a format that I enjoy playing with my friends. I have decent deck boxes, but not many made of wood, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to design a box that I could print out for myself and for friends on the cheap. The sketches I used for the box I started in Fusion360 and modeled the box in a manner similar to the tool tote project. I used four sketches: one for the bottom, one for the top, and one for either type of side. This allowed for easy changes to the design as well as a fast process altogether. The final sketch, extruded and combined Once the sketches were finished, I extruded and combined them to get the final components of th...

The start of this project was just taking the existing 3d model for my previous project and changing the dimensions, specifically the thickness, of the toolbox and then removing small sections of overlap. This created interlocking components that could be easily glued together. I then exported the model as a pdf and uploaded said pdf to a website that operated the laser cutter. I then ran the laser cutter and cut out all of the parts for my tote. After that, I used wood glue and some tape to fix all of the parts together. The result of this project is a small and lightweight tool tote that is more fragile than the one I handmade. This one, however, is more decorated and in my opinion, looks significantly nicer than the handcrafted one. Utility-wise, this laser-cut tote is more suited for small and lightweight objects, as opposed to tools and heavier components like the handmade one. If I were to do this project again, I would likely choose something other than a tool tote. Most...