During this semester, I learned an incredible amount of information about laser cutting and 2D design. I learned all of this through experience. The biggest contributor to this experience was my main project, the 3D model of classrooms in the school. Initially, I started with the idea of making a 3D model of the school. I started by sketching each floor by counting the number of rooms and then dividing the total area of the floor by the number of rooms. Then I proceeded to make a 3D model from these schematics. Finally, I separating the walls from the model and made them a separate model. Finally, I reoriented some bodies in the model to make it more space-efficient. Now that the modeling stage was over, I proceeded to manufacture the design via a laser cutter. Once everything was cut, I assembled all the pieces and sanded down pieces when I had to. The last step was to add primer to get rid of imperfections. Some regrets that I have about my execution is I wish I had finished the final model earlier so I could’ve created a larger model. Another regret is, I wish I had made the model scalable because when I scaled it down, I didn’t account for the material thickness. Finally, I wish I could’ve added some furniture to the model to make it more realistic. In conclusion, I did reach my goal to create a 3D model of the school, while also learning how to use a laser cutter. The model is at approximately a 1:720 scale. The images of the final model can be seen below.
In my last blog, I mentioned that I still had to fabricate a lot of things as the semester was wrapping up. From that time, I have fabricated everything and pictures of the side projects can be seen below. Also, the extra page about some of the minor projects will be up by the end of the day. I am very happy with how they turned out because they look very nice, but I did have some problems. For example with the boat SVG, I made the gaps too thin, so none of the pieces fit together properly. This is an easy fix, but it is a shame that I didn’t have enough time to fix it. However, everything else was completed and worked to its intended purpose. In case I didn’t go into depth for the minor projects that I worked on throughout the semester, I will discuss them now. I started the year by designing a nameplate and an X-Acto Knife Holder. I had a problem with the X-Acto Knife Holder, which was it was designed too well and knives would keep getting stuck inside of it. I think scaling it up to 101% should be enough to make it loose enough for the knives to move in and out of it. In the middle of the year, I made a model of a boat as previously mentioned. While I was working on my school project, I thought it would be good to design some furniture for it, so I made 3D printed a locker. However, I could never the door to move and I think that was because the hinge was too tight to move. I also made an “impossible” object, which is something that can only be made by a 3d printer. The impossible object was a box chain. As Christmas rolled around, I made a sleigh and a gift box. I faced a problem with the sleigh, which was the bridges were too loose. I also faced a problem with the gift box, which was the cover was too small. I was able to resolve the gift box problem, but I wasn’t able to resolve the bridge problem since I didn’t have enough time. Finally, the last thing I made was a Minecraft server, which ran off a Raspberry Pi. I chose to run it off a Raspberry Pi for two reasons. The first reason was to see if the Raspberry Pi could even handle a Minecraft server. The second reason was to gain some experience with the Raspberry Pi and to see how it works. To present all of this, I made a poster that featured all the best side projects. In addition to this, I placed all the 3D printed models at the base of it.
All the STLs to these files previously mentioned will be available for download:
All the SVG files are in this Google Drive folder:
I didn’t learn that much about 3D Design and 3D Printing due to past experiences but it was fun designing models that had to fit certain criteria. However, in the process of making a 3D model of the school, I learned some new features about Fusion 360 and Tinkercad. Using Adobe Illustrator was a new experience for me. At first, I couldn’t figure out how to do anything and was often searching the Adobe Forums for answers to my questions. However, as I got more experienced, I didn’t need to search for answers because the skills that I knew were adequate for me to do everything I needed. Another new experience for me was writing blog posts. Initially, it felt a little bit weird to write about statuses and show the different stages in creating something instead of just presenting the final product, but I think this is a good life skill that I will use later in my life. Writing blogs taught me how to break out steps to a complicated problem then present it to someone else. I see some real-life applications where I can use this skill for example if I’m writing a science lab. One thing that I enjoyed about the blogs was taking pictures of the 3D models and other work that I had done.
Overall the experience of this class was amazing. I would recommend this class interested in design and prototyping or just someone who is curious and wants to learn more.
Stand v3:
Stand v2:
Boat:
Lockers:
Poster:
Minecraft Server:
"Impossible Object":
Sleigh:
Present Box:
X-Acto Knife Holder:
Nameplates:
Final:
