Week 3 - Journal

Ideation

Tell us about your assignment's idea for this week. Why do you care about this idea? What inspired you? (Please include images or links to sources of inspiration)

This week I designed a desk pen holder. The holder makes pencils easy to reach.

I also wanted it to be more useful for me. I often need my phone when I work so I added a space for a mobile holder. I also made several small storage areas for different things.

My goal was to make something that is simple to use and helps me keep my desk tidy and help me work.

Inspiration

II was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest. The design in the picture showed pencils in a way that made them very easy to grab. I liked how simple and practical it looked and I wanted to make something with the same easy access and add a mobile holder to it.
Inspiration links:
pen holder mobile holder

Tool Chain

Which software/machines/materials did you use in the assignment? Why?

For the software I used UltiMaker Cura for 3d printing, and LaserCAD for preparing the files and cutting for laser cutter

LaserCAD

For downloading the file into the laser cuter

Autodesk Fusion

For 2.5d & 3d designing

For the machines used, our lab was equipped with Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer and El Malky ML64 Laser Cutter

Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer

El Malky ML64 Laser Cutter

For the material used 3D Printer used Orange PLA which is a biodegradable thermoplastic filament, and for Laser Cutting we used Plywood
The arms of the glasses were to be fixed to the front frame using m3 screws and nuts

Orange PLA Filament

Plywood sheets

M3 screw & nut

Design/Preparation Process

Explain the design and/or preparation process of your assignment. How did you use the tool or software to design and/or prepare your assignment before fabrication/implementation?

Phone Holder

To start the project, I did some research to explore ideas. During this stage I found an image of a reindeer that caught my attention. I decided to turn it into a phone holder. I imported the image into Autodesk Fusion as a canvas and traced the outline to create the main shape.

I tried measuring the dimensions of my own phone to get a reference I imported the picture into Fusion as a canvas by selecting Insert > Canvas, then right clicking and calibrating the picture so I could design on it.

After taking some measurements i decided to calibrate between these 2 lines to be a distance of 100mm.

Here are some photos of the design after I finished it. I made the feet about 15 mm long so they would be stable. The parts that slot into the base are 3 mm thick, which matches the thickness of the wood I’m using. This way everything fits snugly without being too tight, and the whole piece feels solid when put together.

After that, I copied the component and pasted it again, leaving a 30 mm gap between them so it would fit my phone. I used the regular “Paste” option instead of “Paste New” so both pieces stayed linked. That way if I needed to make changes later I could update one and the other would automatically update too.

Pen Holder (2nd floor)

Once the reindeer mobile holder was finished, I started working on the curved pen holders. To make things easier, I imported a still image of a pencil into Fusion and moved it around to get a sense of how big each hole should be.

To make the holes I settled on 11mm for all holes (which was a mistake some coloring pens are bigger than 15mm)

I then used "Offset" sketch feature to offset my curve by 7.5mm to make a center-line which I will use as a path for "Pattern on path" later

After extruding one hole I used "Pattern on Path" to make the rest of the holes

I repeated the same steps, but this time I offset the center line by 13 mm to create a new center line for the next hole. After finishing that, I mirrored everything, and that gave me the final layout.

The Base

After the 2nd floor was complete I then projected it to create the base for the holder.

The base itself was simple, but I gave it a curved shape to save space on a desk. This meant I had to design bendable wood sides, so I planned to use a living hinge for flexibility.

The base came out to be around:

286mm wide & 220mm tall

To make the base I first projected the curves of the pen holder section then mirrored it and added some tweaks. This base should hold the compartments and the living hinge and 2 connection pieces that I added at the end to make it more stable, I`ll go through each one of these steps later

After extruding the base for 3mm, I now moved on to making the inner compartments.

Inner Compartments

In this section I will go over how I made the inner compartments excluding the living hinge for now.
Inner compartments are made of 5 pieces total

I measured the maximum area I have to work with to begin with the first side and still on leaving some tolerance by making it

I made a new component for the first side and after some experimentation it landed on 99.7mm wide and 60mm tall, I used finger joints on the sides and left a gap at the top to insert an inner piece for later.

at the bottom I made a T-slot connection to secure it to the base for later. After that I extruded it and made a new one like it for the other side.

Now time for the front piece, Its made entirely as a one piece instead of multiple because I thought this way it would be easier.

like middle piece it was made using finger joints and T-slots

I couldn't make it as tall as the sides to fit in the mobile holder reindeer head

Only 2 components remaining now, I started working on the front piece, like the rest it was made of T-slots and finger joints, But instead of having 3 joints on each side it only had 1. The other 2 joints well left empty to fit the living hinge curved corner

Pieces marked with red were left out during extrusion.

Last piece in compartments the middle pieces that splits the 2 sides into 2 compartments, it was made using X-slots on the sides and making sure to leave room at the bottom for the screws of the sides

Living Hinge

There are multiple ways and patterns to make a living but for my needs i went with basic lines. I would recommend anyone attempting this to do some research first. My first time trying it was a major failure.

If you would wanna try this but don't feel like spending 30min in fusion I would recommend using InkScape software and using an extension for living hinge

for anyone wanting to do it manually I would highly recommend checking this video out and going with it step by step.

I`ll only go through basic operation and some screenshots as going over everything would need its own journal

I made a simple arc sketch with extra pieces for joints,
then use sheet metal tools like the tutorial to extrude it

After that I used unfolded it to start working on it

After going through the steps you will end up with something like this, ready for printing.
I couldn't get it to look like the video because fusion kept crashing

And we done, magical flexible wood

Pen Holder (3rd floor)

God this journal getting big, but almost done.
3d curved pen holder floor was made exactly like 2nd floor, to alight its position and fix it to the part, 2 pieces were made that would hold everything together from the sides, and and extension was was from the front to fix it to the front panel.

To align the floor I used the .stl pen imported earlier and a rough estimation of where it should go.

And to finish everything I made cuts to the sides and made these holding pieces

And yes everything is fully defined + every sketch in the project.....

Model is fully assembled with joints you could check the project itself through this link

Development/Implementation Process

Explain the development/implementation process of your assignment. How did you use the machine/tool to manufacture or implement the design of your assignment?

Laser Cutting Prep

Using "dxf for laser" fusion extension exporting the parts for laser cutting was easy. I just choose the piece i want, set the Laser Kerf to 0.15mm and click "Ok"

By the end I ended up with something like this all ready to be imported into LaserCAD

Importing everything into LaserCAD and rearranging them took forever to cut pieces without too much waste
In the end the full design took around 2 full plywood sheets of size 30x50 cm

I don't have the pictures of everything aligned in LaserCAD but it looked like these pictures but on 2 sheets instead of all together.

I cut everything on 15% speed 65% power

To cut everything the laser cutter machine took around 36min

VID_20250805_173748.mp4

VID_20250805_161322.mp4

Assembly

This section will be a simple walkthrough on how to assemble this project

I find it easier to follow parts by number instead of name so I included a picture with each part having a number

This is the target of our assembly for now, we want to assemble these same parts (2 - 3 - 4 -5) but instead of by themselves we assemble them on part 1 (bottom base).

I found connecting everything unto 1 (bottom base) directly much easier and more secure.

Connect the matching holes and sections of part 2 into part 1 like the following picture.

I would recommend using nuts and screws after each part to keep it secure.

now connect 3 or 4 (both are the same) to the internal sides of 1. There are 2 slits in the middle, make sure the bigger one points up

Continue and do the same with the matching part (3 or 4) right in-front of the last part we assembled.

Finish this first assembly connecting the part number 5 to the front of the inner parts.

Now to connect part 6 or 7 (living hinge) to the last section

part 5 should have 2 openings at the top and bottom for parts 6 and 7 to go into, and the other side should connect to part number 1

Now you should have something like this. we need to insert part number 8 (not 9 there is a difference) into the bottom rectangle hole in part number 5

Almost done, now we insert part number 9 above number 8.
Also insert part number 12 in the middle of the other compartments

Insert parts 10 and 11 into the sides connecting parts 1, 8 and 9 together from both sides.

Lastly insert parts 13 and 14 into the front aaaaaand we Done.

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?

I ask for feedback and help on how to make a living hinge and I think the biggest contribution to it working is the lecturer pointing out that the wood bends in one direction more than the other, and i should align my living hinge bending to the same bending as it.

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?

There were 2 major issues with this project:

First issue was me not imagining dimensions correctly which literally caused me to scrape everything and start from the beginning. as you can see from the pictures my design was 60 cm wide, which not only was it too wide for the plywood sheets we had it was too big it could take like 4 sheets to make.

My advice for anyone is to draw at least the base with correct dimensions first on a sheet of paper to imagine things better and avoid this issue. (wasted hours 7+)

Second issue was lack of supports, this section in the front area did not hold all that well, it kept sagging and with added weight it might even break.
to fix it a bracket like the ones added to the side could be added in the future.

Lastly for the living hinge section I would really recommend watching this video.

Final Project

How can you use the skills and knowledge that you've acquired this week in your final project?

If I were to need to make a living hinge part for my final project the mistakes I had while making this one sure to make things easier later

WOW!

What is the coolest thing that you've learned this week? What is something that you will never forget from this week?

I am sure I will never forget the pain of redoing same living hinge part for 2 hours straight

Assignment Design Files

If you checking this project out use the Project link.

Fusion Project Link

raindeer1.dxf

raindeer2.dxf

front-compartment.dxf

base.dxf

left-compartment.dxf

right-compartment.dxf

middle-compartment.dxf

back-compartment.dxf

living-hinge.dxf

2nd-floor.dxf

3rd-floor.dxf

support-right.dxf

support-left.dxf

Drive Link With All Files

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