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Goal
Goal
Our engineering teacher began the year with briefing the class on how to use the laser cutter. For many of us, this was a quick refresher to put our minds back into "school mode." However, there were some of us who were working with the machine for the first time. The main mission of this assignment was to prove to our teacher that we knew how to use the laser cutter, so we would be able to successfully utilize this skill in the future for other projects.
Starting the Process
Starting the Process
Before we were even able to touch the physical laser cutting machine, we had to create a design for the laser to cut.
Creating
Creating
Designing the box on Corel Draw was relatively easy. After drawing one tabbed side of the box, I copied, pasted, and flipped the segments, so that it would be the exact same on both sides. I repeated this process for all four sides and then completed the top and bottom sides on all four as well. Once completing that step, I selected two of the side pieces and turned them upside down in order for all of the tabs to fit together. I grouped each face together separately, used the same techniques to create the bottom piece, and drew small rectangles for the bottom piece to fit on each of the sides. I colored the rectangles green and the edges of the pieces red in order for the laser cutter to pick up on how to cut them.
Cutting
Cutting
When the design had been sent to the laser cutter, I adjusted the preferences on the computer and on the laser cutter. On the computer, I altered the preferences so that the speed was 15, the power 100, and the frequency 100% because I was going to be using cardboard. Different materials require different setting. Luckily, I did not have to adjust any setting directly on the laser cutter. I clicked print on the computer, focused the laser cutter, clicked go, and the picture of the final product is to the side.
2D to 3D Project
2D to 3D Project
Our class's next assignment was to transform a 2D design into a 3D model. From the website Esty.com, I found a model of a christmas tree that I liked. I changed the sides of the tree to be straight on my design (as shown below) to save time. No dimensions for the tree were mentioned in the description, so I made up my own. Because I had to create my own dimensions, I sized the slots wrong on multiple occasions. For example, one time I made the tree with insertion on the top's slot's width too wide whereas the piece with the lower insertion's slot's width was too narrow. Along with that difficulty, I had to recut the foundation pieces three times because each time, I made the inner diagonal rectangles' (as shown to the right) lengths too long.
IMG_1412.MOVVideo of pieces being cut to the left. Link
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