Candidacy Activity #3

You must attached, embed, or upload a photograph of your design plan which should include the dates and times you plan to work on your project & work to be done during that time. This work plan should also contain a list noting which side of the die will be produced from which material:

• #1 from 1/2" thick plywood cut using the hole saw
• #2 from 2x6 piece of wood drilled on the drill press
• #3 from 1/4" thick plywood rastered on the laser cutter
• #4 from masonite vector cut on the laser cutter
• #5 from 1/2" thick plywood drilled using a cordless drill
• #6 from 1/4" thick plywood vector scored on the laser cutter

Short paragraph outlining your project design. How the project unfolded/went. What you learned in terms of tool skills and/or manufacturing as a result of this activity:

I started the project by designing it in CAD. I used my CAD design to figure out how I would get it to be exactly 5”x5”x5”. I eventually got the design to fit while keeping the material thickness and the base project dimensions the same. I did my laser vector cut sides first. I started by copying the dimensions of the sides from CAD to an Inkscape file on the computer. I used this Inkscape side to center my circles and get accurate dimensions for the sides. This included the Masonite #4 and the ¼” plywood #6. I then did the ¼” plywood #3 for raster. Next I cut out my wood on the miter saw according to the dimensions I made in CAD. I then make my #2 on the drill press using the ⅜” drill bit to cut my holes for the side. After I did that, I used the 1 ⅝” hole saw to cut my first #1 side. After that I used the 31/64” drill bit to cut my #5 side using the cordless drill. After I had cut all my sides, I tried to put them together. I had two problems with the sides I had initially made. The #3 raster needed to be 1/9” taller (0.111”), and the #1 hole saw was ¼” too long. I redid both of these parts: the #3 by increasing the dimensions of my Inkscape drawing, and the #1 by recutting the wood and then using the hole saw to drill it so that it would be centered. After I did all this, it all fit together in a perfect 5x5x5 cube. I had started to screw my sides together but then ran into the problem that my sides were too thin and would start splintering if I drilled them. I had to figure out how to drill them together without splintering the wood. I got some help from Ms. Makins and found out that I needed a small piece of wood to go in between the sides so that they could go together. I used that piece of wood to drill through the sides and screw my sides together. Other sides, like the ones touching the 2x6 piece of wood, didn’t have this problem because the wood was already thick enough and didn’t split or splinter. As for learning about the tools:

• I learned how to center shapes in Inkscape
• I learned how to cut or raster certain objects rather than the whole project
• I learned how to screw together two thin pieces of wood without the wood splintering or splitting
• I learned how to use the hole saw and where it is in the Design Den
• I learned to not cut thin pieces of wood on the miter saw after getting scared to death by a piece of wood flying against the wall after being shot by the miter saw
• I learned where the special drill bits are in the design den
• I got more experience on the laser cutter, miter saw, band saw, hand sanders, cordless drills, drill press, and hole saw