Week 1 - Journal
Ideation
The assignment idea of this week is a desk "Display gears" that will be cut on the laser cutter and a "Geneva wheel Roller Ruler" that will be printed on the 3D printer.
I do love gears and use them a lot in my hoppy (making automata), so I did my research on the major website for open source files like GrabCad, Thingiverse & Instructables and found that cool projects.
Tool Chain
Display Gears - LaserWorks
For the Display gears, it will be cut on the laser cutter, So we'll use LaserWorks as a software to prepare the RLD file that will be sent to the Laser Cutting machine. I have managed to add some engraving on the design to make it personal.
The material will be 3 mm plywood. To be rigid and to last long.
Roller Ruler - Ultimate Cura
For the Roller Ruler, it will be printed using the 3d printer, So we'll use Ultimate Cura as a software to prepare the Gcode file that will be sent to the 3d printer Prusa i3 mk3. I have managed to handle the orientation of the design for better printing holding, checked the support and adhesion.
The material will be PLA.
Design/Preparation Process
Design & Prepare the Display Gear - LaserWorks
I managed to differentiate between the cutting process (in black color, speed is 30 and power is 70) and the scanning or engraving process (in Red, speed is 300 and power is 35) also I have added another process for parts on the design that I do not want to cut or engrave (the laser cutter will do nothing. (in Green, power is 35, and output is set to no).
Added a text on one of the gears to personalize the design and added that to the engraving process.
Design & Prepare the Roller Ruler - Ultimate Cura
I did the settings of the printing as follows:
1- The layer thickness to be 0.15 as I needed the tool to be of high quality and very rigid.
2- The infill will be 20% as there will be no pressure on the tool.
3- No supports are needed as the design has no overhanging curves.
4- No adhesion is needed as the design is not that high in the Z-axis and it is well laid on the machine bed plate.
Display Gears - Development/Implementation Process
I went to the lab and added my RLD file to the Laser Cutter computer, I did make sure that everything is ok and downloaded the file to the machine.
On the machine control, I did set the origin, and selected my file to track, then I did a run order.
Laser cutting done.
IMG_0014.MOVLaster Cut the design in time-lapse
The machine finished the job and I did got the pieces out, some of the pieces was not cut properly and I had to use a cutter to set it free.
I started the assembly process using a super clue, a file , and sanding paper from the lab.
Getting pieces out carefully.
Pieces out using a cutter.
After assembly
IMG_0067.MOVTesting Mechanism
Painted by Acrylic colors & Finished by Boiled Linseed oil.
Lovely final product, Enjoy the working video below.
Geneva Roller Ruler - Development/Implementation Process
I went to the lab Checked the final file on Ultimate Cura software with one of the specialists and we decided to remove supports. Moved the gcode file to the Prusa 3D printer, did a pre-heat, and learned how to change the filament. changed it to Red color PLA and did a print order.
Waited to make sure the first layers are ok.
IMG_0032.MOVThe 3D printer is doing the magic.
The lab specialist suggested increasing the machine temperature to 215 degrees the file was set to 200 and the suggested degree on the provided filament was starting from 210 degrees.
Awesome quality and finish.
First time to get items out of the bed plate.
Assembled using 2 x M3 screws (provided by the lab), no nuts needed cause the screw threaded the material while tightening it.
Amazing final product.
So happy with output.
Community of Learning
Did you ask for feedback? What are the ideas that others have contributed or suggested? What was someone else’s idea that you built upon? How did you help your peers? How did your peers help you?
Rawan's 3D printing file.
I did ask my Instructor (Eng. Amany Ayman) about scaling in DXF files regarding the joints and did get help from the instructors thanks to them.
I did manage to fix that issue by measuring the joints after scaling down and found it will be 2.5 mm so less than the plywood thickness by only 0.5 mm which is acceptable as long as there are no slots in the joints.
I did help my colleague Rawan to install and operate Laser Works software on her laptop. Also, I did help her with her 3D printed file. She needed to scall down the model to save on time and grams but scaling down reduced the number of layers so the blades of pending the paper (of her model) will not be strong enough. So I suggested scaling down only the X & Y axis and leaving the Z-axis the same as is to gain more layers and accordingly more strength for the blades.
Overcoming Challenges
When you got stuck, what/who did you turn to? At what point did you have to pause to research or learn more before moving on? What are some mistakes, pitfalls, or challenges that others can avoid if they were doing this assignment?
We did have a mid-week assignment to print a model in less than 15 min. So we worked together on how to make that happen and the outputs was amazing.
Our model is printed with 0.3 layer height, infill of 10%, and without supports, we have been able to make it bigger in scale.
Both models were printed in 15 min. the difference was in the printing settings.
Final Project
How can you use the skills and knowledge that you've acquired this week in your final project?
An idea of the final project enclosure.
I have learned some skill using the laster cutter that will help me build the final project enclosure.
Also I have learned that I have to make sure that the focus of the laser cutter is set correctly before cutting to avoid narrow or wide cutting lines.
WOW!
What is the coolest thing that you've learned this week? What is something that you will never forget from this week?
I have learned to mix dxf files for the Laser Cutter software and added a little bit of engraving to my design.
For the 3d printing I have learned to check the bed plate before positioning my design on the software to avoid any scratches or screws.
Weekly Digest [OPTIONAL]
Tell us about any other cool things that you've made this week: in the Hands-on activity, tutorial examples, exercises, or any other cool mini-project that you tried out aside from the assignment.
I have bought a development board called TTGO T-Display, it is a board based on the ESP32 and it works great with the Arduino IDE so I did practice uploading sketches and started to learn how to combine sketches together.
Managed to combine a Battery Indicator inside the game sketch.
I did make a Padauk wood enclosure to the board to protect and it turned out great.
Alien Attach Game on the TTGO board.