9. Spinny Top
This spinny top is what we are making. We'll build it out of 3 mm plywood. You will design the 3D model, create 2D sketches, and then laser cut it. Here are the steps in a few more details.
Draw the 3D model in Fusion. Use 3 bodies, just like the reality of our construction.
From each 3D body, export a 2D sketch as .dxf.
Place all of these 2D sketches into an Illustrator file, and then laser cut the parts.
Here's a vid of my top spinning. It can spin for about 20 to 30 seconds. A bit of sanding on the bottom point helped.
Dimensions of the central Spinner A. It should match the 60 mm disk. The central slot should be half the height (20 mm in this case).
Here are the dimensions of the disk (60 mm). You do NOT need to draw in the slots manually.
Here's me creating the first 60 mm diameter disk. Nothing flashy here.
This vid shows me creating one central spinner part that I labelled "Spinner A." I started with a 60 mm x 40 mm rectangle that was 3 mm in depth (because my plywood is 3 mm thick).
This vid shows me duplicating one central spinner and rotating it into position. Then I cut slots that are half the height of each spinner (20 mm in this case).
This vid shows how to move the disk into the correct position with the spinners. Then the "combine" tool is used to cut slots into the disk that are perfectly sized and aligned.
Your three bodies from Fusion should now fit together perfectly. Your next step is to create 2D .dxf sketches for laser cutting. This vid shows how to create those sketches within Fusion.
You should now have a folder that contains 3 .dxf sketches that you made exported from Fusion. These are 2D sketches for laser cutting. The last step is to get them into Illustrator and saved as a .ai file. This vid shows how to simply place them into Illustrator.
A strange this is happening. Even though some students are importing the dxf file as the "original size" and keeping mm as the unit, it is importing either really small or big for some students. Here's how we repaired that.