Week 1- Journal

In this week, we got more familiar with the laser cutter and the FDM 3D printer and how they operate, and to get more familiar with how those machines operate, we were asked to choose two ready-made designs, one to be conducted by the laser cutter and the other by the 3D printer.

For the laser cutting process, I have chosen a fish-bone design that is used for holding earphones and prevents it from coiling, I got the design from the 3axis website.

For the 3D printing assignment, as I'm a big Office fan, I have decided that my first 3D printed object to be something related to the Office series :D, so I have searched on the Thingiverse website, and I found a tiny Dunder Mifflin Business card holder box that was so cute!

For the laser cutter design, I used:

1- Laserwork software to prepare my file for the cutting process and import the proper file format for the laser cutter machine

2- the laser cutter machine and a 3 mm thick wooden sheet

For the 3D printer design, I used:

1- FDM 3D printer

2- PLA white filament

3- Ultimaker Cura software

Regarding the laser cutter assignment, I downloaded the DXF format of the design, then by using Laserwork software I adjusted the design scale and determined the cut and scale speeds of each region of the design, then exported the prepared file to rld format.

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For the 3D printer assignment, I imported the design file to Ultimaker software, then I adjusted the size of the box to be printed in not more than 90 minutes and I choose the proper face to begin the printing. For the box cover part I did need supports for its inner cavity, but I didn't need adhesion base for any part of the box

the fish-bone implementation:

I downloaded the rld file of the design to the laser cutting machine, then I adjusted the laser beam nozzle to the suitable height for cutting

The card box implementation:

I downloaded the gcode file to the SD card of the printer, then I made sure that the filament temperature is suitable and the printing plate is clean.