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Projects |
To press-fit two structures, you don't have to make all the edges press-fit, just make them in the borders and in the center, the other edges can be cut normally.
This week assignment was to make a 3-D press-fit structure out of 2-D pieces such as acrylic. The process to get the pieces is drawing it in Corel Draw, and printing them in the Laser Cutter. First you have to draw the pieces in 2-D, without considering making any connection bigger or smaller. The next step is printing in cardboard, to check that the model works. You should use cardboard because the material es very unexpensive and most of it is recycle material. You should choose cardboard as thick as the acrylic you plan to use.
The final assembly of the 3D piece is here.
The pieces were cut with 1/8 inch acrylic. The parameters for the laser cutter were the standard ones for colored acrylic (100% power, 4.6% speed, 1000ppi). The gaps were cut in such way that the female part was a little wider than the calculations, and by taking advantage of the flexibility of the material, it was not necesary to use any glue or cement to join the pieces. The suggestion I can make to people trying to do this type of press-fit
stuff, is that it is not necesary to make all the gaps in the part
to be fitted a little wider, with the borders and the center a little
wider is enough, and the rest of the parts can be designed without
adding any additional width. This can make much more easier to assemble
the parts. |
