Week #3 - Journal

Desk Organiser - Pen, Plant, and Card holder

Tell us about your assignment's idea for this week. Why do you care about this idea? What inspired you? (Please include images or links to sources of inspiration)

preliminary sketch of the design

THE IDEA for this week's assignment was to design and fabricate a pen and pincel holder with 2 compartments. i decided i would make a pen holder for my home office. my initial intention was to come out with a new modern design that uses 3d printed bracket with a color that complements the bare wood finish and a holder for my desk plant 

original sketch for the 3d printed connection between different plywood sheets.

The inspiration for the design comes from woodworking 3d joinery. i have always wanted to try the technique in wood working and this assignment was the perfect opportunity for me to try different designs of joinery and find out how it would look like.

Tool Chain

Which software/machines/materials did you use in the assignment? Why?

below are the tools i have learned to use in the first week of the maker diploma. utilizing these tools i was able to finalize this week's assignment

Ultimaker Cura

Prusa i3 MK2

laser work

morn laser machine

digital caliper

as for the materials i used PLA plastic filament,  3 mm MDF board, black pray paint and yellow painters tape.

PLA  filament 

3mm plywood board

yellow painters tape

Design Process for THE GLASSES

Explain the design and/or preparation process of your assignment. How did you use the tool or software to design and/or prepare your assignment before fabrication/implementation?

MEASURMENTS

i started taking measurement of the items i want to fit inside the pen holder using calipers:  

DESIGN

for the design process of the pen holder i started with fusion 360: 

1- start to make the sketch of the main inclined support since it will be what every thin refirenced to  and make it into a defined sketch. (model 1 side into a defined sketch and mirror it) . 

2- after finalizing the sketch and extruding the 2.5 D part project tool were used to determine the placement and location of all adjacent holes and cutouts of tabs and screws for assembly. 

sketch was extruded at 3 mm to match properly with the upcoming 3d printing joinery

after projecting holes and cutouts 

fully defined main support sketch 

 3- the second part to be sketched was the cross support resting perpendicular on the main support and turned into a fully defined sketch and extruded into 2.5 D part.

fully defined sketch of the cross support structure 

sketch was extruded at 3 mm to match properly with the upcoming 3d printing joinery

4-  to make the 3d printed bracket i created a mid plane to be my sketch guide 

5- the projected the 2 faces of the main and cross support to help guide my sketching process 

6- then extreded it and cut the slots for the ply wood sheets. 

7- a fillet was made for all the outside edges to make it easier on the eyes and hands. 

8- extruded reases holes for the screw heads. 

finalized fully defined sketch of the 3d printed bracket for extrusion

extruded 3d brackets

9- after finalizing the 2 main supports now is the time to mirror the parts to create the 2 identical sides. 

mirrored main part 

10- sketched the plant holder compartment on one of the 2 supports  then extruded it

11 - after extrusion i sketched the hole for the plant on the  the upper face extrude cut it 

12 - added the t-slot and tabs for the connection and projected their location on the main supports and extrude cut them

sketch of the plant holder 

plant location sketch 

plant holder tab and t-slot 

the design of the pen holder compartment started with the inclined side of the box: 

13 - draw the sketch of  the side panel of the pen holding compartment on the inner side of the main support with an offcet plane and projected the face of the main support to help in the alignment of the elements of the pen holder with the rest of the parts

14 - added screw holes to the part to be ready for the 3d printed bracket later 

15 - after drawing the side extrude it into a 2.5 D part and mirror it to have the same side twice 

defined sketch of the pen holder side panel

added the holes

mirror the part to get the other side with the same parameters

15- after designing the side i used one edge of the side panels as a plane to draw the sketch for the other 2 sides with the same inclination

16 - after extruding the 2.5 D parts the i mirrored it to have the complete 4 sides of the box. 

fully defined sketch of the front and back sides of the box

mirror the side to have the full box ready for inserting the brackets

17 - for the 3d printed brackets of the pen holder box i modeled them in a new fusion file to be fully customizable and ready to be used in any upcoming projects. 

18 - draw the sketch of the bracket and make sure all the dimensions fit together inorder to be easily adjusted later according to the need of each project. 

19 - chamfers were added to the finished bracket 

fully defined adjustable sketch for the 3d bracket

sketch to open the screw holes repeated on the 2 sides of the bracket

added fillets to all sides to make it look better and feel soft to the touch

20- import the 3d printed bracket into the pen holder file 

21- break the link to preserve the original version of the model

22 - join the 3 printed bracket to the main 2 sides of the pen holder with the already existing holes

23 - use the 3d printed brackets to project the screw holes into the other 2 side of the box. 

after joining all the 3d printed brackets ready to projec the screw holes into the remaining 2 sides

after projecting and cutting the holes in the other 2 sides

24 - for the prace bridging the 2 main cross supports i sketched on the side edge of the support to creat the bridge

25 - extred it into a 2.5 D part

26- sketch the t-slot and tabs for alignment. 

27 - project the screw hole into the cross support part and extrude cut it. 

bridging part fully defined sketch

 extrude it into 2.5 D

28 - now for the bottom of the box i sketched on the under side of the previous parts and projected the necessary surfaces

29 - decided that this part will be fixed in place using tab and slot only since it is not a loading or necessary part for the assembly 

30 - after drawing the  tab the inclined slot was harder to figure our 

31 - i extrude cut the inclined tab from the front and back sides of the pen holder 

32 - sketch on both sides of the front panel using the project tool to find out the exact placement of the slot to be laser cut correctly

33 - now all that is remaining is to draw the part that will hold the pen holder to the rest of the design

34 - the middle separator of the pen holder was sketcher on the side panel on a med plane and later extruded with tabs and t-slots to fit into the main support

the middle separator of the pen holder

fully defined sketch of the part

picture showing a section analysis explaining the joinery between the different panels

picture showing a section analysis explaining the joinery between the different panels

the complete and assymbled design of the desk organizer 

Design/Preparation Process for the 3d printing assignment

Explain the design and/or preparation process of your assignment. How did you use the tool or software to design and/or prepare your assignment before fabrication/implementation?

laser cutting preparation

export all the panels to DXF files using DXF for laser tool in fusion 360. the process needs to be repeated for each laser cut panel individually

view of the part in laser works

2 - import the files into laser work and nest them not to waist any material 

after the preparation of the file in laser works  i set up the parameters as follows: 

all the steps required to start the laser cutting job was covered in the Week#1 journey 

3d printing preparations preparation

export all 3d printed brackets into stl files

a preview of the 3d printed part in cura

after importing the stl to cura i set it up in the right orientation using 

lay flat tool and use the multiply part tool to make 8 of the same part and the program arranges them in the best way for the printing job according to the part and the printer settings 

eventually i sliced and exported the Gcode using the following parameters: 

all the steps required to start the print was covered in the Week#1 journey 

a preview of the 3d printed part in cura

after importing the stl to cura i set it up in the right orientation.

eventually i sliced and exported the Gcode using the following parameters: 

all the steps required to start the print was covered in the Week#1 journey 

Development/Implementation Process

Explain the development/implementation process of your assignment. How did you use the machine/tool to manufacture or implement the design of your assignment?

laser cutting fabrication

picture of the laser cunt parts after job finish 

3d printing fabrication

part preparation and assembly 

the final fabricated part

Overcoming Challenges

What kinds of challenges or problems did you face while doing the assignment, tutorials, or exercises?  How did you solve them? Did you ask for help from an instructor or peer? Please provide a link to the tutorial or article that you used to solve your problem (if any)

in this assignment i faced many challenges in 3d printing: 

1- choosing the right orientation to print the main support bracket to overcome any deformation (slacking) from bridging but upon consulting the maker deploma instructor and saeed the project manager they advised that 3 mm bridging will not be an issue and the part came out perfect

2-  after finalizing the design i found out that there is too may 3d printed parts to be done within the time slot i have so changes had to be made (show below the original design for some parts ) 

original sketch of the 3d printed bracket 

original design of the 3d printed bracket before value engineering .(had to change the shape to minimize printing time).

finalized fully defined sketch of the 3d printed bracket for extrusion - final design to minimize 3d printing time 

extruded 3d brackets after modification to minimize 3d printing time

original design for the plant holder bracket

original design for the plant holder bracket

new design for the plant holder to eleminate the 3d printed bracket and use tab and t - slot 

new design for the plant holder to eleminate the 3d printed bracket and use tab and t - slot 


Final Project

How can you use the skills and knowledge that you've acquired this week in your final project?

this assignment helps alot in the design and finalization of all fixed and moving parts  in my final project and it gave me a complete and holistic approach and all the fuel and skills i might need to start to visualize then design the construction parts of my final project and opens the possibility for problem solving in the CAD design phase. 

WOW!

What is the coolest thing that you've learned this week? What is something that you will never forget from this week?

this week in the end of week session we designed - assembled and fabricated a cool lantern with different versions of 3d printed and laser cut joinery

cool lantern

top view

Weekly Digest

Tell us about any other cool things that you've made this week: in the Hands-on activity, tutorial examples, exercises, or any other cool mini-project that you tried out aside from the assignment.

Week Wrap Up In Pictures

first place with mohamed rabie in the tallest paper tower challenge (140 CM) 

A5-A6 groups with the coolest instructors (Amany & adel) 

Assignment Design Files