Laser Cutting A Joint System
This week's assignment is to design and laser-cut some 2D pieces, and use those 2D pieces to create a joint system forming a 3D geometry.
Stage 1: Brainstrom
The idea comes from a toy called snowflake I played in my childhood.
The geometry of snowflake is really simple. It is basiclly a circle with cuts on the edge.
Each piece has eight cuts on the edge, which provide a huge degree of freedom to make a 3D object.
I am a super fan of starwars, so I decided to make a lightsaber using the geometry of a snowflake.
![XuehuaPian](./img/w2-1.png)
Snowflake Toy
![LightSaber](./img/w2-2.jpg)
Avenger LightSaber by Parksabers
Stage 2: 3D Modeling and Geometry Design
The thickness of cardboard is 0.15 inch. I tried different width for the opening on the snowflake.
I found 0.14 inch is the perfect size. 0.14 inch opening squeezes the cardboard a little bit,
provides enough friction I need to hold two piece together but not too tight.
![fourPieces](./img/w2-5.jpg)
I modeled my lightsaber with four baisc compoments using Solidworks.
The long stem in the top image will hold the snowflakes together when assembled.
![3D View](./img/w2-6.jpg)
The final 3D view of the lightsaber.
The hollow cylinder design accounts for future improvement of the electronics.
I want to have enough space for a CR123A battery to provide 3V power.
Stage 3: Laser Cutting and Assembly
![Layout](./img/w2-3.jpg)
Layout of Pieces.
I used 120w laser cutter. The speed was set to 30%, power 8% freq 500.
The first time I picked combined mode, the laser was just rastoring over the entire cardboard.
After waiting for a long time, I stopped the process, and change the setting to vector mode.
Vector mode is much faster and cut the piece through.
![assembly](./img/w2-4.jpg)
Assemble my lightsaber
After I had all of my pieces cutted, I started to put everything together.
![finalProduct](./img/w2-7.jpg)
Lightsaber fully assembled.
I really like the final product, the dimension is perfect for one hand blade.
I would like to cut the pieces in plexiglass and make the handld longer for two-handed blade in the future.
Vinly Cutter
![Vinly cutter](./img/w2-8.jpg)
I tested vinly cutter with a fishbone figure. The image is not a solid color, I need to change
threshold setting(0.95 is a good number) for the software to calculate a complete path, otherwise the cutting path also go inside
the image. The default setting for cutting force is 50gf, it does not penetrate at all, I increase the force to
100 gf, it cut through but not deep enough as shown in the upper row midder figure.
150 gf and speed to 3cm/s, it cuts through nicely, but the speed is a little too fast, as shown in the upper row right
figure. With a setting of 150 gf and 2cm/s, I had a perfect cut of fishbone for my laptop sticker collection.
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