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Materials, preparation and printing/cutting
Workshop Description
Workshop Description
This workshop was the ultimate hands-on experience, with the class going around through three different stations:
3D Printing Station
Vinyl Sticker Station
Laser Cutting Station
The goal of today's session was to use the designs that we had already created in Workshops 9 & 10, and experiment with the different machines, figure out their operation so that we could use them independently going forward in future projects. My reflections for this workshop can be found at the end of the page.
My designs for the three stations
My designs for the three stations
Vinyl Sticker Design: A cat named Molly
3D Printing Design: Detective Key
Laser Cutter Design: Waves Coaster
Vinyl Sticker Process
Vinyl Sticker Process
I wanted to create something abstract with geometric shapes and symmetry that would include the 'spiral' shape. It ended up looking like a cat! I named it Molly after this artist, because the albums have similar black and white patterns. The process was:
Download Silhuette Studio + Drivers for the printer
The silhouette free version doesn't recognise SVG files so the file must be in a JPG format
In Inkscape resize the file to be size A4
Form red lines around the design for the cutter
CAREFUL: The lines must be thick enough for the cutter to recognise them
If they are not thick enough the Knife tool can be used to form them around the design
Some snapshots from the process
Some snapshots from the process
Vinyl Sticker.mp4
Laser Cutting Process
Laser Cutting Process
One of the goals of the workshop's activities was to design something useful for our everyday lives. I thought of making a coaster for putting my mugs on! The process was:
Use Inkscape to create the design - I used blocks which I duplicated and rotated to create a wave-looking shape
Export as a JPG image
Use Mr Beam software for preparing the designs for the laser cutter
For the laser cutter, insert a piece of wood or other material
LESSONS LEARNED: Don't treat a laser cutting design like a painting because the cutter might iterate too much on the same spots and end up burning the material and cutting through it!
Some snapshots from the process
Some snapshots from the process
Laser Cutter.mp4
3D Printing Process
3D Printing Process
For this design I took inspiration from the Clue Mysteries boardgame where includes different detective props. I designed a simple detective key that can be used to derive clues from text. The process was:
Create your design on TinkerCad
Export it as an STL file
Import it via USB to the Ultimaker Cura software
This environment is used for preparing the design for 3D Printing - you can scale it
When the design is ready press Slice
You can preview your design and also have an estimate of
For the Optimus printer the design can be sent directly to the 3D printer
For the Ultimaker printer it has to be transferred to the SD card first
Inspiration from Clue Mysteries game
Some snapshots from the process
Some snapshots from the process
Reflections + Takeaways
Reflections + Takeaways
There is a long process and of course, a learning curve in using any kind of tool or machine, but especially with expensive, multi-functioning machines there is even a feeling of being intimidated and completely lost as to where to start with understanding how they operate.
The facilitators of the workshop, Belle & Ridwan created a really supportive environment and basically guided us through the whole process, but even in that case a lot of tinkering was needed so that the designs would be in an acceptable format for the machines but mostly so that they would do what we expected them to do.
Personally, my experience today was really positive, partially because I didn't face too many issues when operating the machines (with the exception of the laser cutter design which ended up piercing through my coaster and leaving a huge gap). However I did have to do some tinkering myself, mostly for the outlining of the stickers in red color so that the cutter would "read" it, . I saw it as an opportunity to learn something new and wasn't too worried that it didn't work perfectly. I'd say that it gave a DIY feeling to the whole process which I really enjoyed.
Overall, I think with every debugging process comes frustration or even the urge to give up because the eagerness to see a self-made product precedes the logical thinking that warns us that it's normal for things to not work perfectly at once. So, I believe the emotions of excitement are contradictory to the patience needed to actually learn the tool first. We sometimes expect of machines to just work magically when we tell them to do something, but we don't realize that specifications and detailed instructions when using technology are significant and there are steps that cannot be skipped.
So my main takeaways, both behavioral and practical, would be:
Attitude towards technology is key to working with machines such as 3D printers, laser cutters and other complicated tools. It's important to take the time to get to know the functions, do some small trial-and-error sessions and then begin with the actual design. This wasn't needed today because we had a lot of support, but is good to remember for future endeavors.
There is a certain level of digital literacy needed for going back and forth with the software and the hardware, searching for information but mostly, not being afraid to use new technologies and failing in the process
Outlining is a key concept in both vinyl sticker designs and laser cutting. For the former, the outline has to be thick enough for the machine to recognize it, because if its too thin the machine will only consider the outer paper outline, which might not be the desired result. For the latter, the outline should not be thick because the machine will then perform multiple extra iterations that are not needed.
In laser cutting, perhaps "less is more" is the correct mindset for beginner designs. Treating a design like a painting and putting too much detail will probably lead to errors because a beginner is not in the place to predict the machine's behavior.
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