Week 2: Computer controlled cutting (cardboard)
Background
For this project, we were asked to design, laser cut, and document a press-fit parametric construction kit.
Materials
Process
I had a difficult time coming up with an idea for this project. I toyed with the idea of creating cars, dolls, and lincoln logs, but ended up settling on something fairly simple given press-fit construction is almost an entirely new concept to me.
Given that Halloween is coming up, I decided to create a spooky headstone. To start, I sketched out a few different shapes to see which one I liked the most (pictured in the top right).
Once the sketch was done, I attempted to model this all out on Fusion 360 but got frustrated trying to use parametric functions to calculate the size of the finger joints that would connect these different pieces together. After two hours of trying on Fusion 360, I surrendered and decided to move my efforts over to Adobe Illustrator.
Before starting my design in Illustrator, I created a sketch with more detailed dimensions on paper that included all the different parts and their male and female joints (and kerfing) to reduce my own personal headaches. Once that was done, I then moved that design over to Illustrator as you can see pictured on the bottom right.
After that was done, I was able to bring it to the lab and start laser cutting for the first time. My initial kerf amount that I had set made my joints too loose, so I ended up making all my female joints (xxx) amount smaller. Once that was done, I reprinted the joints and assembled everything.
This was a decently cool project, mostly just annoying to calculate and mock everything up on various tools before finding what worked for me. If I could go back and do this again, I'd probably try to make it look less like an Arby's hat and more like headstone. That, and probably wouldn't mess around with Fusion 360 to begin with-- it's a great tool, but I struggle immensely with the UI, confusing warnings, and software bugs that seem to be incessantly thrown my way running the application on my Mac.
If you'd like to recreate this project, you can download my SVG and DXF files here.
