For the past couple weeks, we have been working on our midterm projects. I chose to implement a design that is a combination of movement 157 and movement 335 from 507 Mechanical Movements. I began by making a 2D drawing of my model in Adobe Illustrator. After several major modifications to the initial drawing, I completed the parts of my project that moves.
Next, I moved on to making the connectors and stand that will hold the project together. I planned for all joints to be connected by wooden dowels. Thus, I designed some circles that will fit over the wooden dowels to secure each joint. The whole model is supported by two stands with notches that will attach to the back plate.
With my drawings approved, I began to laser cut all the pieces for a medium fidelity prototype. Since I did not have access to the Epilog laser cutter at that time, I used the Muse instead. It was a slower process, but it got the job done nonetheless. After some patience, my laser cut parts were done.
For now, I decided to use a scrap piece of wood as the backboard. The circles on the backboard were not part of my design, but it was an inspiration for my final build. For the connectors, I hot glued the laser cut circles to secure the joints. During assembly, I discovered that some parts were made slightly too big, so I modified the final design.
After being approved to start my final build, I wanted to make an interesting backboard to start the final build. I decided that the back plate will be made from a single piece of laser cut plywood. Each circular edge will be laser etched with a swirl pattern, inspired by the random piece of wood I found. Using the Epilog this time, still took 30 minutes to cut and etch the backboard. The other pieces were recut with slight modifications to their dimensions.
I decided that the large actuating arm could be plasma cut. I did not cut the holes on the arm where the connectors would go; the plasma cutter would not have the precision needed to cut the exact radius. The cut went without a hitch, but the aluminum was pleading to be post-processed.
I took the usual steps in processing the metal. I first removed the larger pieces of dross using pliers. Then, I belt-sanded the edges to make them smooth. Next, drilled the holes for the wood dowels to go through. Afterwards, I used sandpaper to manually smooth out imperfections. Finally, I sand blasted the entire arm for a beautiful matte surface.
I decided to stain the small box to contrast it with the silvery metal arm. I first sanded the surface to prepare the stain. Then, I applied a darker stain called Walnut. Given this was the first time tried staining on my own, I was satisfied with the result.
With all parts made, it was ready to assemble. This process took a surprisingly long time. I need to make sure the alignment was correct and wait for the glue to dry before moving on to the next part. Fortunately, everything came together smoothly. Here is my complete build:
Cost:
For my model, I used a single sheet of quarter inch plywood, which costs $5. The actuating arm would fit on a 24” by 12” sheet of 1/8” aluminum, which costs $29.61. The sandpaper I used costs $4.27. The plasma cutter would cost $60 per hour; I spent one hour using it. The laser cutter would cost $30 per hour; I spent about 4 hours using it. The finish I used is $8.98 per can. Finally, I spent 15 hours from start to finish and assuming I’m being paid $10 per hour, labor would be $150. Therefore, the total cost to make my contraption is $377.90.
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