I built a miniature punch machine for this midterm project. I used the illustrator file I submitted for my previous assignment as my starting point. This project spanned over 4 weeks from editing my illustrator file to finishing and assembling the final product.
When I started this project, I was not entirely sure of how accurate my illustrator file was and whether or not once I cut and assembled my pieces, if they would all fit and work together seamlessly. I figured that the best way for me to know was to go ahead and laser cut the pieces according to my original file and put them all together. I treated this as my medium fidelity prototype and used plywood as my starting material. Once I assembled my first medium fidelity prototype, I realized that my illustrator file needed a lot of editing because most of the pieces weren’t of the right dimensions. Eventually, after multiple adjustments to my illustrator file, I finally got all the pieces to fit together properly and I began working on my high fidelity prototype.
original .ai file
final .ai files
pieces I cut out from multiple illustrator files
The first step I took when assembling my final prototype was to make sure that all the parts fit together perfectly. There were times when it was difficult for me to tell whether or not the machine was functioning properly because some of the components had to be glued onto the backboard/base for it to work. I tried my best to hold everything in place while I test the functionality of each component. Once I was satisfied that it was going to work properly, I went ahead and glued the pieces together. At this point, the only components I could glue together were the dowels since I had to stain most of the components before I could glue the rest of the pieces together.
My next challenge was to construct a sturdy base for my device. I wasn’t a huge fan of the design of the base given in the book so I wanted to try something different. My solution was to laser cut multiple 1.5 in. circles with a slit the width of the backboard cut into them. I then stacked multiple pieces together to form a column that would secure the punch machine onto its base. It looks like this:
I also had to design a handle for my punch machine. The 1/4 in. dowels were not easy to grip so I glued multiple 0.6 in. circles together to form a hollow cylinder that I then slid onto the dowel to form a handle and to give the user a better grip of the handle.
To finish my punch machine, I used sandpaper to smooth out any rough edges formed during laser cutting or glueing. I then stained the wood to give it a darker color. This is the penetrating stain I used:
Assembling and finishing the final prototype proved to be much tougher than I expected. The biggest challenge I faced was figuring out the order in which I should test, glue, assemble and finish each component of the machine. There were times when I prematurely glued multiple components to the backboard only to realize later on that the components were ill-fitting or needed to be finished beforehand. Luckily, the glue hadn’t fully hardened when these mistakes occurred so I was able to fix my mistakes accordingly.
At last, I finished my miniature punch machine! Here’s a couple of pictures of the final product and a video of it in action:
