Week 1 - Journal

My assignment's idea for this week is how to use the fabrication tools ( 3D printer and laser cutter) to fabricate designs, which impressed me on websites, from materials ( plastic and wood ).

as i mechanical engineer, I wanted to make design present my love for my department. So, my 3d printing design is 3 gears inside a heart. The gear is the historical symbolic for the mechanical engineer , no three refer to the 3 branches of my department: mechatronic engineering branch, industrial engineering branch, and production engineering branch.

3D Printing

• Software: Cura is an open-source slicing application for 3D printers.

• Machine: Prusa i3 MK2 is one of the best 3D Printer in digital fabrication by MAKE

• Materials: ESUN PLA

Laser Cutting

• Software: Laserwork (V6) is a powerful program that allows you to perform laser cutting engraving operations.

• Machine: Morn MT3050D CO2 Laser Cutter

• Materials: 3mm Plywood.

3D Printing

• Cura is used for slicing the selected DXF file of design from open-source CAD libraries to print using a 3D printer as shown in the figures. 1 hour and 17 minutes is the estimated time to print the two parts, and PLA is the material that has been used in printing with .15 mm profiles and 10% infill. The parts did not need any support or adhesion.

Laser Cutting

• LaserWork has been used for performing laser cutting and engraving operations for the selected DXF file of design from open-source CAD libraries to fabricated it using a laser machine as shown in the figures. the outer cutting process is performed at a speed of 15 mm/ s and power of 70 %. But for the inner cutting process, it was at a speed of 300 mm/s and power was 20%. For the scan process, 300 mm/s was the speed and 30% was the power.

3D Printing

The fabrication process steps are as the following:

1- The g code file of the heart gears has been transferred to The SD card of the printer. The SD card has been inserted into the Prusa mk2 3D printer. I used the white filament. After that, the printing process has been started as shown in the video

2- I waited until the printer printed the first 5 layers to ensure that the printing process goes well.

3- I waited till the printer finish the printing of the holder, which was around 1 hour and 17 minutes.

Laser Cutting

LaserWork machine has been used for performing laser cutting and engraving operations. The two DXF files of medal and cat have been downloaded laser cut machine to fabricated them using as shown in the figures and video.

- The outer cutting process is performed at a speed of 15 mm/ s and power of 70 % for the medal and the outer profile of cat

The engraving process was at a speed of 300 mm/s and power was 20 and 30% for the cat face.

I have learned from lab specialists how to open and used the Laser Cutting machine and 3D printer. Also, I learned from the Saeed in the Monday session laser the safty issues of these machines epically the laser cut

The cat body should be scanned as the original file in the frist figure, but I made mistake during the preparation of cat part on laserwork software. This mistake was I made cuts and scanned for the part at the same time, so the final outcome was like the second photo. With the help of the lab supervisor, I overcome this challenge but there was not enough time to use the machine again to fix it.

At the end of this week, I got essential skills of machine working ( 3d printing and laser cut), which I will need in the 3 D printing and laser cutting work of my final project. these skills can be summarized in the following points:

1. Finding and downloading the stable design files from open source CAD libraries for the 3D printing and Laser Cutting.

2. Learning the digital fabrication process and how to deal with 3D printing and Laser Cutting.

I made Mario using a laser cut machine, it is my amazing fictional character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Mario game was my favorite game when child

Week 1 - Are you dare to leap!

Week one for me is a leap. The leap from what to see ( image, design in computer ) to what you touch ( physical engraved and printed parts )