Week 2 - 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)

Have you ever been confused about which outfit to wear, or which one will suit you best?
My dear customer, I’ve decided to solve your problem and give you the best solution ever—something you’ve never seen before!

The project idea is all about mixing things up: two different glasses shapes, with some artwork on one of the hands and a pen holder on the other. Below, you can find some sketches of the ideas.

Intial design Imaginary inspiration just mixing every thing up!

Tool Chain

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

For Digital Design

Software Used: Fusion 360

I started by designing in Fusion 360, then exported the DXF files to RDWorks and STL files to ultimaker Cura

For the 3D Printing:

Software Used: Ultimaker Cura
Printer Model: Prusa i3 MK3/MK3S
Material Used: PLA filament

I started by using the slicing software to generate the G-code, then printed the model using PLA filament.

For Laser Cutting

Software Used: RDWorks ,Fusion 360
Printer Model: El Malky ML149 CO₂ Laser Cutter
Material Used: 3mm Plywood

I started by designing in Fusion 360, then exported the DXF file to RDWorks to modify the file parameters. After that, I sent it to the El Malky Laser Cutter, using 3mm plywood as the material.

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?

Sooo, the steps I went through were pretty messy. I started designing directly, then got stuck—“Ooh, my design isn’t fully defined, and the constraints I’m trying to use are throwing me errors!”

At that point, I thought, “Why don’t we take a step back?” I grabbed paper and pen, sketched the design from the computer onto paper with the dimensions…

AND DELETED THE WHOLE THING.

Yep, I did it this way and started over again. Finally, it was fully defined and ready to be exported as a DXF file.

I first started working on the eye-glasses face, adding more constraints to achieve a fully defined sketch. It consists of one component, and then I extruded it to 3 mm.

For the hand of the glasses, I started by drawing two rectangles with a 135° angle between them and filleting the edges so they wouldn’t be too sharp.

I also wanted to add some artwork on one of the hands and a pen holder on the other—so it’s totally useful and satisfying for users from all fields.

I started working on the first one by searching for realistic dimensions. I added some fillets to the one-piece hand and made one hole for the nail. Then I duplicated it to make another hand, with the only difference being that the hole was in the opposite direction. Of course, I extruded all of them and added fillet so it's not sharp.

Final Extruded Part

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?

I started by saving the face part as a DXF file to work on with the laser cutting machine.

In the DXF, I just modified the parameters, and since it was only one piece, I didn’t have to worry about space—I made it directly with the laser cutting machine.

For the handles in fusion 360, I saved them as a mesh, chose the STL file format, and opened them in Ultimaker Cura for slicing. I picked the best position with the least time, support, and material usage, then saved it as a G-code file.

To have multiple colors, I watched the printer as it worked. When it reached the part I wanted to change, I paused it, swapped the filament, and noted the progress percentage so I could do the exact same thing on the other hand.

Welcome to life 🤓

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?

Me and Israa, sitting on San3a’s doorstep.

I was stuck trying to join the two rectangles together and adjust the angle for the ear part—until my maker friend, Israa, told me it was geometrically impossible, since one of the lines had to be longer than the other to connect them.

She suggested that instead of using rectangles, I could use lines. That way, I’d have flexibility with the lengths and still be able to fully define the design.

And let’s not forget the unknown soldier—or “الجندي المجهول” as we say—Radwa. I was like, “I don’t know the dimensions for the connecting part,” and without saying a word, she whipped off her glasses, handed them to me, and went, “Here, check the dimensions you want.”

Radwa's eye glasess

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?

At the point when I couldn’t fully define my design, I decided I needed to do the sketching—which I was supposed to do before designing anyway. But what can I say? I’m just a hasty person.

So please, if you think skipping some steps will make you go faster—nope! You’ll just end up doing the work twice. As a piece of advice: don’t do this.

Final Project

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

I learned how to make fully defined designs and export them in the suitable extension to fabricate using both the laser cutting machine and the 3D printer.

This will definitely help me create a nice final project that not only works but also has a good finish.

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.

For this week in the EoWeek session, we made the most perfect bookmark—as you can see. I worked on this project with Ebram and Souhaib, creating a “perfect” project that broke all the rules, successfully worked with splines, and somehow ended up… undefined.

If you want to see the project, look at Ebram. Zoom in. More… moooore… just a little bit more, please.

Yep—that tiny thing Ebram is holding with two fingers? That’s our bookmark 🤓.

Assignment Design Files

Hands [SLT]

Hands [G-Code]

Face [DXF]

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