How to Make (Almost) Anything

Shruthi Lakshmi Saravanan

Composites

For composites, I wanted to do a spiral structure the negative of which could be used as a pen/pencil holder.

  • Software Rhino
  • Machine SHopbot
  • Material Foam, Epoxy
  • Hours 9

Project 01a
I modelled it in rhino. However, there were a few glitches in my design. The cuboids were too close to each other. As the endmill we use to mill foam is 1/2 inches, the minimum gap between two tollpaths should be atlease 0.75 inches. And the job was also taking a really long time. SO I scaled down the model by removing a few bocks and reducing the size as such.
Project 01b
Milling in progress.
Project 01c
Applying paste wax on the foam before pouring epoxy. this prevents the foam from burning.
Project 01c
After pouring epoxy. It immediately started forming bubbles.
Project 01c
As you can see the end result was a big blob of mess. It became so hard that I wasnt able to remove the mold.