Week2 - Journal

The movie The Greatest Showman taught me important lessons about inclusivity and accepting people for who they are. It showed how a circus can be a place where people from all walks of life come together to create something amazing, celebrating their differences rather than hiding them.

This inspired me to design my glasses with a circus theme.

The arms: 

Glasses arms include three sizes of hoops representing the circus hoops used for juggling. 

The body: 

Glasses body have a circus tent on one side, and two monocycles on the other side. 

3D printing of the glasses arms:

Designing process: 

1) Used fusion 360 to design the arms because it allows you to design your sketch from scratch and then add all the needed 3D features. 

2) Used Ultimaker Cura to slice the arms and then revisited fusion 360 to adjust some features accordingly. 

 Printing process: 

Printer: Prusa i3 Mk3/Mk3s

Material: PLA filament

Laser cutting of glasses body: 

Designing process: 

1) Used fusion 360 to design the body because it allows you to design your sketch from scratch and then extrude it to 3mm to have a better imagination of how it would look like printed. 

2) Used RDworks to have a better vision of which parts will be speed cut and which parts will be cut or scanned. 

Printing process: 

Printer: Laser printer 

Material: 3mm Plywood

3D printing of glasses arms: 

Step 1: Using Fusion 360

Sketch Tool:

• Created a 2D outline of the glasses arm shape, including curves and dimensions for proper fit. (Reference of dimensions is attached in the image carousel) 

Extrude Tool:

• Extruded the 2D sketch into a 3D shape to form the base structure of the arm.

Fillet Tool:

• Added smooth edges or beveled corners for comfort and aesthetic appeal.

Mirror Tool:

• Repeated the arm on the same plane to be able to create the new orientation of the perpendicular piece used for the screw. 

Negative Extrude tool: 

• After drawing a 3.3mm circle in the extra part to the are, I extruded it negatively to make sure there's room for the screw and the nut

Appearance: 

Added a red polymer appearance to the design to show how it would look like matching the circus theme. 

3D Printing Preparation:

• Exported the design as an STL file and ensured the dimensions were suitable for 3D printing.

Step 2: Using Ultimaker Cura: 

• Sliced the model and added support to the area where the screws are going to be. 

Laser cutting of glasses body: 

Step 1: Using Fusion 360 

Creating the Base Sketch:

• Used the Sketch Tool in Fusion 360 to draw the 2D outline of the glasses body and extra part for the M3 screw. This included defining dimensions and curves based on the required design and fit.

Using Fillet tool:

• Applied the Fillet Tool to create smooth, flowing curves, ensuring ergonomic comfort and an appealing design inspired by the circus theme.

Adding Details:

• Used the Line Tool and Circle Tool to add any decorative elements reflecting the circus theme, like the monocycle, and the tent. 

Mirror Tool (if applicable):

• Used the Mirror Tool to duplicate symmetrical parts, ensuring both sides of the glasses design matched perfectly, and also to facilitate making the sketch fully defined.

Extrude tool:

• Extruded the sketch into 3mm to have a better imagination of how it would look like cut from plywood. 

Exporting as a DXF File:

• Selected the 2D sketch and used Export as DXF to save the file in a format compatible with laser cutting machines.

Step 2: Using RDworks: 

Observed the DXF file on RDworks and worked on breaking some of the lines in order to change their colour and prepare them for the laser cutting process next week.

I used the following tools to facilitate the editing of the lines in my sketch: 

• Edit node: break curve

• Edit node: add node (in case of lines that didn't already include a curve) 

Using RDworks, I now have areas that are black in the design which means that they'd be cut using speed: 40 and power: 45. There are other areas for speed cutting which will be using speed: 300 and power: 10. 

3D printing glasses arms: 

The Ultimaker Cura parameters were as follows: 

• Layer height: 0.2 

• Printing temperature: 215

• Infill Density: 20

To 3D print the glasses arms, I added the gcode file to the printer's SD card after properly naming it and adding the correct support items. The name included the time it will take (57 minutes) and the grams it would use (9 grams). 

-To change the filament colour into red I followed the following steps: 

1) Chose unload filament. 

2) Chose that the current filament is PLA. 

3) Added the new filament. 

4) Made sure that the colour of the filament is the correct colour. 

-To print my file, I followed the following steps: 

1) Placed the SD card inside the machine. 

2) Chose my file from the SD card. 

3) Waited for the printer to reach 60 °C and to calibrate. 

4) Waited to the printer make the very first layer. Just to make sure that my design is placed correctly. 

It was just a matter of time before I had the two arms in my hand. 

-Support removal: 

After that I had the chance to remove the support using the tools in the photos and the design was ready to be assembled with the glasses front frame. 

Laser cutting glasses body: 

To laser cut my DXF file, I opened it on my PC and connected my PC to the laser cutter. 

Added the following sparameters to RDworks: 

Cut areas, had speed of: 40 and power of: 45

Speed cut areas, had speed of: 300 and power of: 10 

I turned on the laser cutter and then made sure that I inserted my plywood sheet inside of it and kept it steady using the connectors. 

I pressed "download" in RDworks and named the file "circus". 

I then went to the laser cutter and moved the nosle until it reached the place where the printing would start, I then pressed "origin" 

I pressed "frame" to see where the design will be placed and to make sure that it is within the plywood. 

I made sure I closed the glass door of the laser cutter and then pressed "start". 

After getting my design, there were very small details that were broken from it, so I decided to sand the wood to make it look better and to stick a piece that was broken to the glasses again using "super glue" 

• I turned to my instructors when I was challenged (Ahmed and Farida)

• I researched using chatgpt, the web, and youtube. (As mentioned in community learning section) 

• I would advise people not to choose a complicated design because of the time constraint. 

• Also, make sure that all of the design is fully defined (bit by bit).

During fabricating my glasses:  

• My first challenge was the fact the that the filament fell from on top of the 3D printer and we couldn't make it stand again. So, my glasses arm had what's similar to empty space in it because there wasn't enough loose filament at a very specific point. 

The lab technician suggested that we'd use "hot air" to try to make it look better after the printing and it actually looked better but wasn't fixed completely. 

• The design had some flaws in it that made some details get broken from the plywood such as the flag on top of the circus tent and one of the monocycles. 

On designing for laser cutting, the design should be a bit thicker to avoid being broken. and maybe use fillet tool to make the curves more smooth. 

The laser cutter, 3D printer, and Fusion 360 are essential tools for my final project, which aims to create an interactive learning board for visually impaired students. Without these tools and software, it would be challenging to construct the precise and tactile elements crucial for the board's design. Fusion 360 allows me to design detailed and accurate 3D models and 2D sketches, ensuring every element meets the project's specific needs. The laser cutter will craft intricate, raised textures for the board’s surface based on designs created in Fusion 360, while the 3D printer will bring to life customizable components like buttons, shapes, and textures for students to interact with. Together, these tools and software ensure the project delivers a hands-on, sensory-rich experience that supports the unique learning needs of visually impaired students, which would be impossible to achieve without such technology.