How To Make Almost Anything Neil Gershenfeld
MIT Center For Bits And Atoms
VINYL + LASER CUTTING
Fab labs share an evolving inventory of core capabilities to make (almost) anything, allowing people and projects to be shared. These are my projects.
Vinyl Cutting
09.22.21
group assignment: characterize your laser cutter’s focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, joint clearance, and types
individual assignment: cut something on the vinyl cutter design, laser cut, and document a parametric construction kit, accounting for the laser cutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways, and for extra credit include elements that aren't flat
[1] For Vinyl Cutting, I decided to cut the geographical outline of South America, my continent of origin. Thinking about Vinyl Cutting, reminded me of boundary conditions, and made me wonder if boundaries are necessary conditions to define concepts and ideas. The idea of South America as one united continent in a Union of South American Nations is one that has always interested me, so I decided to find an image from which I could extract a vector that defined the boundary of South America to cut using the Vinyl Cutter.
With that image, I saved it on Illustrator as a high-quality PNG file. Then, I uploaded it to the PNG Vinyl cutting MOD to be converted and cut using the Vinyl Cutting Machine.
Considerations: -The definition of the outline of the continent made removing the final cut from the vinyl sticker very difficult. In the future try to think about how much definition is needed, and maybe even modify the outline so it is not so defined. -Tweezers help to weed the vinyl.
Laser Cutting -
Press Fit Kit
09.22.21
[2] For Laser Cutting I decided to model a bowl using Rhino. To do this, I tested various curvatures and modeled in 2D the two pieces that would compose the entire object. The idea was to create a “male” and a “female” part that would press fit together in a modular way to generate a larger defined object. I decided to use a thin sheet of plywood so that the final object would be sturdier than cardboard (the material most students used).
Considerations: -Group assignment for characterizing Kerf can be found in the following link, here. -When organizing objects to be laser cut, do it in such a way as to minimize the material that will be wasted. -The assembly of a closed modular object required some malleability, so at first, although I thought I needed a tight-fitting press fit, I later realized I needed it to be a little loose so all the parts could assemble in its partial construction phase.
