1. Computer Controlled Cutting
Gear Shelves
Vinly Cutting
I made this sticker in Illustrator by editing the font Helvetica and creating the teardrop from a series of control points. As for the backstory, this one dates back to 6.002 about a year ago. A few friends and I took the class together (none of us electrical engineers), and struggled through it quite a bit. At some point in the semester we all started telling each other this while we were psetting, then we wrote each other notes which have been taped to our laptops ever since. I figured it was about time to replace those taped pieces of notebook paper with something more permanent!
On to the laser cutting portion of the porject. I spent a seemingly endless amount of time thinking of furniture items to build for my new room before deciding on the gear shelves. This room has substantially less storage space than my last one, and after a summer in California I have substantially more backpacking gear than before. I decided to make use of a terrible corner just inside the door by creating a series of modular and lightweight shelves that could be stacked there and used as storage. Gear shelves!
Bad puns aside, these shelves of varying sizes could be stacked and leaned against one another to contruct the perfect storage scenario for any outdoorsy mechanical engineering college student on a budget!
The shelf itself is an involute gear: this refers to the curve pattern on the teeth, which provides constant contact between teeth while rotating. I first began designing a larger shelf section before realizing that it was unrealistic due to material and time constraints for the project, but I would definitely like to continue and construct more of these shelves. The one I went with only provides an eight inch cubby, perfect for small items, but I'll need larger for the rest of my gear.
