Embedded Files
Concepts
When we were first assigned the project, I went onto Pinterest to find what to turn into my sign. My original thoughts were to do snoopy, but I later changed to attempt to do Winnie the Pooh, inspired by my mom. I tried to use an image of Winnie the Pooh, but it would have been to complex and taken to long to turn into a clean black-and-white vector and I wasn't able to find a nice image, so I switched to Piglet and chose this image.
Illustrator
I inserted my image into Illustrator and first turned the image into vectors using the image trace feature. I didn't need to do any cleaning on the image since the Piglet was pretty simple. I turned everything into black and white then downloaded as dxf to import into Fusion as a sketch.
Fusion: Design
I created a sketch, set my bottom plane, and imported my dxf Piglet into Fusion with a depth of 0.5 in. I now had my base model, but to create the different details, I extruded everything but the outlines and anything black by -0.25, so it would be indented when cut. I also created my stock by creating a new sketch, making it the necessary size to fit Piglet (also with a 0.5 depth), and then changing the dimensions slightly to make it whole numbers. After some issues with the ears, I was done with my sketch and was ready to move on to the manufacturing stage.
Fusion: Manufacture
Once I was finished with the design portion I moved onto the manufacture part to create the tool paths for the inside of Piglet and for the outside. First I created my x, y, z point. First go to set up, stock tab, and change relkative size to from solid and click on the stock to select. Select the stock, go back to set up and selective box point and select the bottom left corner of your stock. Then go to model, selection box, then click body one. Next to create the 2d pocket (the inside indents) click 2d pocket, under tool hit select, dawson fs tools #5 (1/4 inch bit). That selects the tool you want to use to cut. Then go to the third tab, geometry, and select the bottom surface (inside piglet). Then go to paces, turn off stock to leave, turn on multiple depths, verify that maximum routing is correct (half of the diameter of the bit). Next up for the 2d contour, under tool select Dawson fs tool 8 (1/2 inch bit), then go to geometry then select the outside bottom edge. go to heights and go to bottom heights and offset by -0.02, passes and select multiply depth and maximum rounding double. After that the tool paths were created. I also spray-painted my wood black once finished with the tool paths.
Epilog Laser
I decided that I wanted to cut out the ears and nose out of a cute pink acrylic that I had found. I exported my finished model as a dxf to put into Illustrator so that it would have all the correct dimensions. I checked to see if the ears and nose would fit into the acrylic (due to it being pretty small) by measuring the dimensions of the acrylic and putting a rectangle of its shape into Illustrator and checking to see if all of them could fit in the rectangle. They did, so I made the lines 0.001 size and printed them to the laser cutter. I used the camera to fit the pieces correctly, auto-focused on the acrylic, used the acrylic 1/8th inch preset, and cut. Everything turned out well, however, I had forgotten to do a 0.04 offset to have it fit into the pockets.
Issues
Due to not giving myself the 0.04 offset for the ears in Illustrator, I needed to do it in Fusion which caused a lot of issues. I created the offset lines in Fusion, but they would create holes that needed to be patched and it was hard to fill them due to having to zoom in so much. Once I got Fusion to recognize my offsets as their own shape, they would not extrude correctly. I had placed too many separate extrusions so to fix the issue, you had to go back into the history to clean everything up. Then you could correctly extrude the offset line which fixed this problem. I also had issues with the blue tape. Due to the wood being slightly rough, I needed to sand it to get the blue tape to stick correctly. Also because I was using 2 pieces of tape due to my wood being too large, I had some overlapping parts which caused some air bubbles which I needed to poke holes into to release the air so the machine wouldn't recognize that as the surface.
Sora Piglet.mp4CNC Machine
After everything was fixed, I created my NC Program, sent it to maker space, and was ready to cut. I taped the non-spray-painted side of the wood, put some tape on the machine, and glued the tapes together. I had to use some extra glue and glue activator due to the corners not sticking together. I checked the 6 steps, loaded my job, set my x, y, and z points by lining the x and y to my bottom left corner, and used the paper method with the z coordinate. Finally, I made sure my wood was secured and checked that the fan was on. After this, I was ready to start the machine. My job ran for about 20 minutes, and during this time I vacuumed all the wood scraps so that the blue tape wouldn't peel. The job finished successfully and I carefully removed my piglet off the machine using the thin tool.
Finishing Touches
After I cut on the CNC Machine, I did some sanding to clean everything up and spray-painted everything but the stomach a light pink. I let this dry, covered it up with green tape, and spray-painted the stomach a darker pink. Once this was all dried, I peeled off the blue tape that covered the black spray-paint. To finish everything up I put a clear coat over it to give it a nice gloss and to make it smoother.
Reflection
1. In your own words describe the major steps to successfully design something in Illustrator, use it to model in fusion, and use the laser cutter after cutting on the CNC.
The major steps to creating the sign were 1. pick the image that you want to create, 2. turn it into a black and white vector, 3. upload the dxf into fusion as a sketch, 4. create the stock, 5. create the tool paths, 6. cut on the CNC machine, 7. spray paint anything (this can be done before cutting), 8. cut anything you want out of the laser cutter through printing in Illustrator.
2. What did you learn about the process of painting and masking?
I learned about the blue mask and how it can be used to paint different objects different colors post-CNC cut.
3. What part of CAD/CAM did you find most complicated or confusing?
Nothing was too complex in CAD, but in CAM, the most confusing part was creating the different tool paths since it was a lot of different steps that needed to be followed.
4. What lessons did you learn along the way about working through a multi step project?
I learned to always double check your steps when doing something, like laser cutting and when creating toolpaths. I also learned to always review the steps and to check things off when completed.
5. What tools/software did you learn to use in order to create your piece? The only new tool that I learned how to use the blue masking tape. I did also learn new functions though in Fusion and Illustrator, turning an image into vectors and turning a sketch into a full model.
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