Personal Research Project
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How can we make celebratory objects enjoyable for those who lack sight?
For my final personal research project, I created a diagram of an English (North US) braille model that says "Happy birthday to you!" in uncontracted form
I designed a 3D model for my braille here in Fusion360
I 3D printed the model on Nov. 24th at the Makerspace in Tempe. here
I ran into the issue of the cylinder braille nodes being too small, some were falling off the model while there were a few cylinders completely missing
To work around this, I cut up some tooth picks and hot glued them onto the model
I also applied hot glue around the base of each cylinder to prevent them from falling off/breaking while indenting the card
I proceeded to do a test print on the same card stock I would be using (very rough test)
I designed a card in Illustrator. I applied a red-orange-magenta gradient hue to the card, drew out my rastor and vector lines, then printed the design on card stock with my own printer at home.
On Dec 1st, I went to the ASU MiX Center in Mesa to laser print my card
L: 4.5 in, W: 7 in
I ran into the issue of the model being a bit off centered. I was advised by the print studio assistant to cut the edges with an X-Acto blade.
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Re-constructing & printing the model
I found the imprint to be unsuccessful. The punctures were not prominent enough to "feel" and the toothpicks were barely making an impact. I decided to re-do my model, this time with 3 mm diameter braille.
I realized there was a miss-spelling so I corrected the wording
This time I modeled a female and male model
I did not have a device to clamp the printed braille into the card stock. I was using my hands, then used a hard surface but found this process to be not only exhausting but whatever surface I used left marks on my test strip. This seemed unprofessional.
Female Model (with 5.5 mm hollow cylinders)
Male Model (with 3 mm cylinders)
On Dec. 4th I went to the Makerspace to print my new models. I picked up the models on Dec. 5th.
The female model did not print the way I thought it would (no hollow cylinders)
So I resorted to using latex gloves and pressing the male model into the card
Overall, I would say this was kind of successful. I ended up getting the results I wanted from the 3D model regardless of the female model failing. I think there were some faces I had to remove from the female model in order for it to print correctly. Re-printing my male model gave me better results compared to prototype 1.
I think next time there could be some more prototyping done, as well as trial and error. The final results could have turned out better had I generated a successful clamping device (female model).
Over the course of this process, I learned how to use Fusion360, UltiMaker cura, and more on laser printing/Illustrator. I especially learned how easy it actually is to send in a model to the Makerspace (I believe I don't even need an appointment, just the software and Makerspace application) and pick it up within a couple days notice.
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