Embedded Files
Summary of keychain project
The Keychain project is our first project of this semester. We had to choose a photo to engrave, I chose a photo with Natalie and I from our junior class trip this year. I used many different machines and software to make this and down below I will tell you the materials and the process on how to make it!
Materials
Computer
Key chain ring
Adobe Illustrator
Wood board
Roland TruVis vinyl printer
Creating
This is the picture I started with. We made this with Adobe Illustrator. I started with making a new file, I pushed file then place. I picked the 4x4 size of art board because thats the size we needed for our keychain. I imported this picture onto the board, I re shaped the picture so it would fit in between the 4x4 and embed the picture by pressing embed on the right panel so it got placed. For me to trace it I had to click the curvature tool to go around our bodies and outline the details like natalies sunglasses and my braids. I created my own line to fit exaclty how I wanted it around Natalie and I. I also used the pen tool to outline our eyes, mouth and hair.
This is what it looked like after I outlined and traced everything. I filled in our shirts, my hair, our eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and Natalies sunglasses. I did this so it was easier for me to see the details and now I knew what parts would be darker once it was lazer printed. You can see a circle near Natalies sunglasses, this is the hole I made so that when my cut out is finished there is a hole for the keychain ring to go through. This is also the final product for when I send it to the printer.
To tell the printer what I wanted to print I had to make sure it knew what I wanted to cut and what to get engraved. Before I printed I had to make sure my outside lines were 0.001. This would allow the wood to get fully cut through. I also had to make sure I was on windows not Mac because the only way you can do this is on windows on a school computer. Once I was ready I went to file - print and made sure I had the right settings for the laser cutter. After I was done I pushed print and it sent me to the Epilog laser cutter. I made sure my cut out was 1/6mm because that was the thickness of the wood, then chose my color on the vector.
Process of laser cutting
Once my settings were how I wanted them I pushed print. It sent my information to the helix laser cutter. I put a piece of wood on the top left corner of the laser printer. On the helix you have to focus it by taking the focuser off the top of the laser (it's magnetic). I had to move the platform that had my wood on it up and down to make sure I had the right distance for it to focus. Once I moved it up a bit higher i would push it up a little but then let go and see what sound it made once it made a little tap when it fell it was focused! I was now ready to print, I shut the top and pushed the green button. I made sure the fans were on and I started printing.
My sticker
After finishing my laser cut design I had to make a sticker to go on the other side of the wood. I chose to do a pretty sunset that I took on my phone. I had to make a copy of my outline on Adobe Illustrator and paste it into a new file. I had to mirror the image so it would flip. I mirrored it by clicking on a button on the top right of the panel. The button looks like two triangles facing each other with a dotted line in the middle. I had to make the outside of my print pink (you can see it in the picture). I made the outside and the outline of the hole pink because once we send it to the printer the printer will know to just cut the pink out. Once I was done I saved my file and uploaded it to the google doc with all of our stickers.
This is what the sticker printer looked like. It's called the TruVis vinyl printer. It prints stickers on a big sheet of sticker paper so everyone can get theirs at once. On the left is a picture of the big sticker machine.
End Product
Reflection
Overall I really enjoyed this project and I think its a good starting point to what we have ahead of us. As you can see I did face some challenges to get a good end product, It took a lot of trial and error to get finished. The left picture you can see my whole did get fully enclosed. That is because I didn't set my line around my hole to 0.001. The line was too thick and the hole was also placed too high on the face. It caused it to cut and opening at the top of the hole. Three out of four of the cut outs on the right failed. The one that isn't fully cut is the first one I did. My lines were not set to 0.001 again and it didn't get cut all the way through. The one next to it got cut out but my hole didn't get cut through. I would do this project again I just wouldn't choose a photo of a person again because you have to outline and trace so much detail.
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