Embedded Files
Making the Ring Practice Cuts:
Before we could print or cut out our rings, we had to create, on Inkscape, a “prototype” of our rings, so we could test out the size we needed to make for our fingers. On Inkscape, we began trying different sizes to print our rings, so we had to make 2 circles. I originally made my outer circle .73 in and my inner circle .61 in, to make the thickness of the ring, just big enough, so it wouldn't catch on fire in the laser cutter, but it would also look thick enough to be a ring as well. To make the center circle aligned with in the center of the bigger circle, I had to go to align and distribute, and press the third from the left on the second row, with the smaller circle selected and the bigger circle selected second. This center aligns the circles. I also, had to have the ring in the upper left side of the document, so I could manipulate where the cut on the laser cut would happen, so I could waste less cardboard. I had to make sure the lines were at .01, so they would cut through, and I saved it as an svg, so I could cut it on the laser cutter. After, I cut this ring prototype, I realized that my ring would need to be larger. I manipulated with different ring sizes, like .7 and making the outer circle .85 in. I tried to keep the outer circle around .12-.15 bigger, because on my first cut, the ring almost caught on fire, so I made it a little wider. This ring was still too small I also tried to make a ring that was .9 and the outer circle was 1.5. This ring was too big, so I decided, after my many cuts, that around .8 in inner circle would be the size of my ring. It was a good idea to use the laser cutter to get a good idea of what size your ring should be, without having to use the CNC machine and wasting a lot of aluminum test trialing to find sizes for rings
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Practice Cuts on Laser Cutter:
When cutting my many prototypes of my ring, I had to make sure to open the svg files in Correl Draw to cut it on the laser cutter. I had to make sure both of the circles were in hairline outline, and that they were in the upper left side of the document. The settings for cutting cardboard are vector, speed 20, power 100, frequency 100. In this project, fo the laser cutter, we also, had to not use automatic focus, but use the jog function and the little toggle/switch or arrows to move the laser cutter’s starting position, which is why it is important that the ring be in the upper left hand corner of the document. You jog it to a place, where there is no cuts already on the cardboard. I had to repeat these steps for all three times I practice cut rings.
*for laser cut workflow, look under Design 2 tab of portfolio under laser cutter
Making Actual Ring:
When making the actual ring, I downloaded a file from our shared google classroom in Fusion. I first had to change the mode back to model mode, and the circle it created already had default settings for the ring, but I had to change them in order to fit my finger. I changed the inner circle diameter to .8 in, and kept the outer circle at .6 because the thickness is the same regardless of inner circle. Then we went to cam mode and right clicked on setup 1, and then we clicked post process and made sure to save it to othermill for the post processor, because if we didn’t, then it would not cut out on the CNC machine, I made this mistake the first time I tried to cut my ring. I then pressed okay and saved it. This file already had the tool paths on it, so we did not have to change any of that. Also, when naming the file, it has to be name .gcode at the end. There will be some code that pops up after you press okay, but just press okay or x out of it, because it is typically right, unless you need something in particular altered. Then you can put in on your Google drive and be ready to cut.
*This link is to the website with the document to download and the instructions for building a ring: (https://support.bantamtools.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003187966-Fusion-360-Aluminum-Rings)
Workflow for CNC Machine:
1. Open otherplan
2. aluminum plate needs to be clean- use vacuum to clean it
3. Screw the fixuring in place
4. Put the two sided tape on small piece of material (aluminum)- cover bottom side of material- no overlapping
5. measure length and width do the aluminum to put the dimensions of length, width and height under size
6. Download file off of the engineering google drive
7. Open .gcode file and choose correct bit (in this case 1/8 bit)
8. Change fixturing to yes, not none
9. Home the machine (the the flat end of the bit to do this). This is also making the machine locate the fixture (press loading before)
10. Reverse of change the bit back to drilling side down (use little wrenches to change bit direction)
11. Change location of ring to not touch sides, by pressing placement and messing with it a little like .125 or .2- just change x and y to not touch over sides of machine
12. Put the material (the aluminum in this case) with double sided tape, on the lower left corner of the machine and make sure that it is all even and pressed down really hard, so it will not move during the cut
13. Press start milling (can cause and play throughout cut if necessary)
14. Sand the aluminum at the end
15. Clean the CNC machine with a vacuum
Cutting Ring:
For this specific cut, we used aluminum, so when we placed the double sided tape on the aluminum, we had to make sure it was not overlapping and covered the majority of the little square of aluminum, but not going over the sides of the square. For my first cut, the tape was slightly over the edge and when I went to stick down the material, it bunched up a little on the sides underneath the aluminum, and since the CNC machine is very sensitive to change in height or slight elevation of the material, the machine starting creating dangerous noises and I had to start over my cut, with a new piece of aluminum. For this cut, also, you need a ⅛ in bit to use. Also, since with this cut, we are using aluminum, at the end of the cut, we had to sand it down because the material had jagged edges, and you can’t put it on your finger with it having jagged edges and some loose aluminum. One of the other issues that I had when cutting, that is a good thing to know for future reference, is that the CNC machine will make some high pitch noises when cutting, and I stopped and pressed play twice fast, and this caused the shopbot to turn off and turn back on, so I know this now and warn against it in the future for anyone else who does this.
Summary:
This project has helped me understand how to use the CNC machine for the first time, and that there can be problems when using this machine because it is sensitive towards certain things, like height change, and it is important that the file is an othermill file. This project has shown me how to work the machine, what needs to be changed, how to change the bit, how to set up the machine to make sure it cuts smoothly, and where everything needs to go in order to make the cut run smoothly. This has given me a better understanding of how to use this machine, and that it will be helpful and useful for me in the future with smaller projects with thicker materials.
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