Week 3

Pen and pencil holder

My task this week is to create a cool pen and pencil holder with 2.5D designs, to be fabricated with a laser cutter using 3D printed brackets

After doing some research for inspiration, I decided to build pens and pencil holder combined with a cardholder, drawer, sticky notes, and mobile holder, inspired by this design from this website

In this task, I'll use Fusion 360 in designs, then cut it on the Elmalki laser cutter on 3mm plywood using laser works software and print the brackets on the Prusa i3 MK3 3D printer after slicing with cura software with wooden color PLA filament

To know how I did it, follow me to the next few steps.

🚩Remember

Rule zero " Always save the file in the right place after creating it & and before doing anything "
Rule one " Create a new component for every object you designed to make it easy to control and assemblies "

sketch your actual size on paper and try to build it with cardboard

Create a new component before creating any sketch

create the base sketch with 120 x 220 mm

Start creating places for slots and T-slot, we will create a place for a screw with 3mm in the base and slots with a width of 3mm " the plywood thickness " and 30% length for each slot as shown

after creating all slots for the back, left, middle and right sides it should look like this

Now finish sketching then extrude

congratulations " You finished the base "

🚩Remember 1

Before going to the next part, right-click on the component name from the left tree and set the component as a base by choosing ground from the menu
Create a new component for the next part

Now create a new sketch for the backside

Before sketching remember to project the design on the base by pressing "P" or choosing Project from the Create menu, this will help you to draw shapes and slots on the right size and place

as shown, I'll install the back side on base with a T-slot and the right and left sides with an X-slot " The X-slot is 3mm in width and 50% length

after finishing, extrude with 3mm thickness

Now, creating the 3 sides.

create the first side " 100 mm x 120 mm " with a T-slot at the bottom and an x-slot from the back

Remember to use the project option to create the slots at the right place and size

After creating and Extrude the first side

Right click on the side component from the right tree and select copy
Right click on the main component
Choose past new
Repeat step 3 one more time to create the third side

We chose the " past new "instead of the past because if we edit the side sketch it will be edited separately

now your design should look like this after assembling sides using the Joint option

With the same previous steps, start to create the next three parts " partition for pens and pencils, card holder, and sticky notes place "

🚩Remember the steps *

New component
Create sketch
Project
create slots
Extrude
Joint

Now, create a fillet on the three sides and some patterns for the cardholder.

Then change the appearance to look like wood, and here you go, a cool pen holder, but not cool enough for me 🙃

let's level it up and add some cool features 😎

drawer
mobile holder

Insert the bracket that I designed before and set the angle to 160 degree

Joint it at the backside with 3m screw and nuts with 25 mm from the top edge

Now I'll add the backside mobile holder 100 x 80 mm and down holder with 2 small captive nut brackets 10mm size

lastly, to prevent the mobile from sliding out, I'll add a small wooden nut in the middle of the downside holder

Now create the drawer

the drawer size will be 101mm wide, 112mm long, and 42mm high

( the highs without taps ) "Remember to calculate the screw head for height" to make the drawer slide smoothly.

The same as the previous steps, You can do it. 🤓

New component, Create sketch, Project, create slots, Extrude, Joint

Let's render our design to see what it looks like.

Now we will save the laser cutting files as DXF with this magical tool " DXF for Laser "

Download and install it then restart your Fusion 360 software

from create toolbar choose save dxf for laser cutting

select the face you want to save as dxf, set the laser kerf by asking the lab expert, uncheck output multiple layers, and then click OK to save.

Don't forget to save the bracket and brackets with captive nuts as stl files

DXF Files

STL Files

Open the Laserworks software

import your DXF files
set it at the right orientation to save places " Remember your plywood sheet is 50 x 30 cm "
set the cutting parameters " power = 50, speed = 30 "

in my design, I divided the cutting into two groups as you can see the first group and the second one in the next picture

In this group, as you can see, I added my signature and some engraved quotes

I imported PNG files to Inkscape software and saved them as DXF files then imported them to Laserworks

and I set the parameters to be

cutting, power = 50, speed = 30
speed cutting, power = 20, speed = 330
engraving, power = 20, speed = 330

and hereunder the group files are to be inserted into the laser cutter machine

The AI Groups Files

Lastly, for the 3D parts, open STL files with Cura software, position them on the appropriate side, Set the quality to 0.2, infill = 20%, in these shapes, we don't need any support, slice the object, then preview it, as you can see it will take about 29 min and 4 gm