Monday, April 25, 2016

Digital Making- Laser Cut and Form-work Assemble

Preparation for laser cut

          PDF files saved from 123D make were uploaded and opened in Adobe Illustrator and the colours of the outlines were changed to make sure that the outline of the templates need to be cut are red, and the numbering are blue just to get the scratched useful as a guide in assembling the cut out pieces for form-work. Stroke weight needs to be changed to 0.001 mm for successful cut. Used 4 sheets of 3mm plywood 600*300 for laser cut (check the quality of the plywood to make sure it is not bent for successful cut through the sheet).


PDF templates for laser cut

          Saved (.AI) files from Adode Illustrator after setting and opened those files in laser cutter application. Opened the laser cutter printer application and setting the material to natural plywood with cutting depth of 3.5 mm added extra 0.5 mm for successful cut because plywood sheets were bend. Turned on the laser cutter. Placed the plywood on the laser cutting bed and adjusted the focus point of the laser cutter using the focusing tool to make sure all the templates are within the boundaries (repositionthe the sheet if needed). Shut the lid, turn on the extractors and press play button. Approximate cutting time was 6 mins for each sheet, repeated the same process for each sheet. Regardless of the extractors,wise to wear the mask because of the strong fumes produced from laser cutter for Health & Safety.

Cut out plywood sheets

                                        
Total 50 pieces were stacked to test the alignment
          Top 12 layers were decided to removed to test on another possible Polaroid camera shape

Constructing the form-work

          Used UHU glue to assemble the form-work and the alignment holes from laser cutter guided the alignment of the model.




Final form-work and ready for metal shaping








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