Mini Projects: Lamp, Pencil Sharpener, Phone Cases, and Practicing with Fusion

Practicing with Fusion:

During this semester of engineering, we started learning how to use different CAD programs in order to design a variety of projects, and we will later use those designs to print them or create them on our various machines in our FAB lab. One of these CAD programs we have spent a lot of time on is Fusion 360. We began learning how to use Fusion by going through some basic functions, such as making a box under the create tab of fusion. Then we practiced creating fillets on the edges of the box, to make the box have curved edges, and this function is under the modify tab of fusion, and we could have selected as many edges of the box we wanted to have curved sides on and how deep or curved, we actual wanted the curves to be. We also created a hole by selecting hole under create tab in fusion, the adjusting the settings of the height and width of the cylinder we were cutting out in order to make a hole.We also switched from model to render mode just to able to see the difference in what we can do or what it looks like, so we can work with both settings in the future. We also practiced changing the colors and material of the box. We created this box just to get an overall understanding of the basic functions of Fusion, so we can work with it for our next projects.

Lamp:

In order to make the lamp, we first had to download the drawing of the ½ lamp shade, or basically just a curve, and after we downloaded this, create a new file in Fusion. Then in Fusion, under the insert tab, press attached canvas, then press the ½ lamp shade photo, and select the bottom square for what plane you want to see the picture in. You can use the cube to alter how to see your image. Zoom in on the picture, and then turn the cube to see the photo right side up. Change units to cm if you want, but mm also works. Press calibrate, when you right click on the left side of fusion, where the name of the image is under canvases, which is what you will right click on. Now press create a sketch, to start creating all the lines and connected then the way to picture is set up. We used the line tool under create to make just simply the straight edges of the lamp shade. Then we used the spline tool under create, to create the curves of the lamp shade. The dimensions were given on the image. We had to make sure all the lines and splines were attached in order to actually make the shape of the image. Then we had to make sure to press stop sketch, because if we didn’t then we would not be able to manipulate each sketch that we created individually. Now we had to make the model 3d, and in order to do this, we used the revolve function under the create tab of fusion. We had to click the straight line going upward in order to choose which axis the image would be revolved around, then it looked 3d. Then we used the shell tool under the modify tab and selected the top and bottom circles and chose a thickness, and my thickness was very thin because fusion was not allowing my shapes to cut out, at the recommended thickness of .15cm, so I used around .1 cm thickness, but the shell function still worked. Then me wade the material glossy, white aluminum.

Then we were ready to create the arm, and in order to do this we had to make a circle in the middle of the top of the lamp shade that was .8 cm in diameter. You need to make sure, from all angles, that the circle is centered and on the lamp. I had to start my lamp over several times because this step will affect the next steps and will prevent you from doing the next steps, if the circle is not on the lampshade or not centered. After creating the small circle, we had to extrude this circle and made the operation cut, and dragged the circle to make it long enough to go through one side of the lamp. One of the issues I had, was that my circle was not extruding the way it should have been, so make sure that it extrudes out the side and not the front or back, because then there is an issue with the tiny circle, and you will probably have to start your lamp over, like I did. Now create another sketch and zoom in near the tiny circle on the lamp. We then had to create a line that was 2.5 cm through the hole, and check from all sides, to make sure this line goes through the center the circle and the center of the lamp, because this is another indicated of an issue, possible with the tiny circle, but you might just have to draw the line again, but it needs to be on target. Next, we created a three point arc, to curve like the arm of a lamp would. We used a fillet in order to make the curve more smooth and less pointy in the middle, and between the first straight line and the three point arc. Then, stop sketch. Then we created a path along plane, and created a tiny circle on the end of the line of the lamp arm, that was .75 cm. This circle needs to be centered well on the line and on the edge of the line, so there are no issues with the next steps. Then, we created a circle within the circle that was .55 cm. Then we stopped the sketch, and used the sweep along the path of the line, to make the line 3d and look more like the arm of a lamp. We changed the material of this to brass.

Next, we created a new file and created a form. We created a box with dimensions of 2.5 by 3 by 2.5 cm. Then we pressed mirror internal symmetry and edit form and selected two faces of the cube and dragged them to 12.5 cm, and because of the internal mirroring, it created two separate legs. Then we dragged the legs outward by 7.5 cm, and dragged it down by 5 cm. Then we went to edit form under the modify tab, and made adjustments to the top two faces of the stand, by dragging it down and forward and making the top have more of a tip. Then press finish form, so we will be able to create holes to put the lamp arm into this stand. Then we created a plane at an angle, under the construct tab, made a 30 degree angle, and then created an offset plane and dragged the arrow around 7 cm. Then we sketched out a point, which is under the create tab, near the top middle of the stand. We created a circle with a diameter of .8 cm, stopped the sketch, and oriented our view to the side view, to see the circle was floating, and extruded it to go into the stand. We set our extents to all. We changed this material to black aluminum.

Then we went back to the file with our lamp shade, and made all the bodies components by right clicking on them and pressing create component. Then, to make the arm fit the stand, we made a line at 30 degrees that was 1 cm, then we created a fillet between the arm and this little line, then we stopped the sketch. Then we pressed edit feature and path, and we clicked on the new little line, to make the 3d tube that was over the line, over the little line as well. Then we looked at our designs we had made and right clicked on the lamp stand, and pressed insert into current design. Then we rotated the stand until it looked like it would match up with the hole. Then we created a joint between then end of the arm and the hole in the stand, so they would connect.

To render our lamps, we switched our view from model to render mode. Then, we clicked on the teapot tab, that says render. We had to make sure the width was 1600 px and height was 1200 px, and it was a local render with quality of final(75). Then we pressed okay to render our lamps, and then saved it.

To create the schematics of our lamps, we pressed create a new drawing from design. We created the scale as 1;5, and pressed projected view and pressed base view for our lamps. Then we clicked and dragged our lamps to the four corners of the document, and made the lamp go in four different views and directions. Then we pressed linear dimensions, under the dimensions tab, then clicked one side of the lamp to another to show its measurements. We did this for all 4 lamps views. We then typed in our information in the box in the right bottom corner and saved our work.

Things to be careful with this project, is making sure that you are in the right views and planes when creating different components of this project, and also making sure that everything connects and is centered, or else it can mess up your project as a whole and you will have to start over.

Pencil Sharpener:

One of the other mini-projects we created in order to become familiar with Fusion, was we created a pencil sharpener. We had to use only the image of a pencil sharpener to make this project and use the skills we know on fusion to make it look similar to it. I started by making a box that was 145mm long and 75 mm wide and 100 mm tall. This gave me the original base for the project. I then created fillets on the top edges of the box, to make it look more rounded and more like the pencil sharpener shape. The fillets were 6mm. I then moved on to adding the little circles to the bottom to the pencil sharpener, that elevate the pencil sharpener slightly. I just estimated how big the circles were, and then used the press pull function to make them a little 3d. Then, I added a rectangle to the front of my pencil sharpener because the pencil sharpener I was looking at to model off of had a rectangle behind the hole that is used as a sharpener. I then used the press pull tool to push the rectangle into the larger rectangle, to make the bottom half “pop” out, so it looked like the bottom half was the container with the pencil shavings. Next, I made two circles, one a little larger than the other. The tiny circle I made, I used the extrude tool and changed the operation to cut, in order to have the actual place that you would put pencils to sharpen. This design looked basically like a pencil sharpener, but if I would have had more time to improve my design, I would have made the circles more “realistic,” like not just circles by more of a triangle, or a cone shape. This might have improved my design. I could have also added more detail, like making the bottom half look more like the place for pencil shavings, by making it a little more curved. I could have also made the sharpener more curved as a whole, but overall I think did a good job creating a simple design for a pencil sharpener that I can improve on in the future.