Hi everyone! For my third project I used the plasma cutter to cut two identical diamonds that have my initials, SP, in the middle of them. Due to it being my first time using the plasma cutter, I ran into a lot of road bumps along the way and will be sure to point those out so hopefully people don’t run into them in the future!
DAY 1: Designing/Cutting (3 hours)
Due to meeting my midterm project partner in the OEDK in the morning, I went ahead and created my diamond design in Adobe Illustrator ahead of time. To create my design, I downloaded the diamond file from Canvas and added “SP” as text in the center of the diamond shape.
My Adobe Illustrator file before printing.
With the design work out of the way, I came in later that day to use the plasma cutter and cut two identical diamonds. I had a hard time finding a lab assistant to get into the room with the plasma cutter, but once I was inside was able to follow the directions (with many mishaps) to get my diamonds cut. The first road block I hit was that the air hose wasn’t connected or turned on. I connected the air hose early in my set-up, but didn’t realize that the valve was shut so ran into many errors later on when trying to actually cut the stainless steel (“The program has been paused by the Fault Signal input line”).
Another road block I hit was during the file set-up. When setting the path for the plasma cutter to follow, my original file cut the outer diamond edge first, then the initials, then the outer diamond edge again. I knew the initials would need to be cut first in order to prevent the piece from flying away, but wasn’t sure how to get rid of the first path. Working with the lab assistant on shift, we were able to modify the G-Code to take out the initial path and get the cut on its way. The ___ setting was set to 110 ____.
My diamond cuts before any post-processing.
After my diamonds were cut, I went over to the metal files and worked on the edges of my piece. I realize now that I should have gone straight to the angle grinder and sand blaster before filing down the edges, but you live and you learn!
The front side of my diamond cut after filing.
The back side of my diamond cut after filing.
As you can see, there are still quite a few bumps on the back of my shape so I’ll be using the angle grinder to get rid of those later.
DAY 2: Post-Processing (1.5 hours)
The next day I came back to use both the angle grinder and sand blaster, but was only able to use the sand blaster since the lab assistant on shift wasn’t sure how to use the angle grinder and I wasn’t in class during that session. Due to this, I tried to file down my diamonds as much as possible, but the excess residue on the inside of the diamond (where the initials are) was difficult to get off with this method. With skipping over this step, I went straight to the sand blaster and was able to get a much more uniform and smooth surface.
One diamond sand blasted and one not.
Both diamonds sand blasted.
I then moved onto spray painting which took longer than I expected. I was a bit impatient and didn’t take the time to wait for it to dry all the way on one side allowing the front side’s paint to get messed up. I wrote my steps on the back with tape and a pen then left them on the ENGI210 table to dry. Once the front fully dries (mistakes and all), I will try to touch up the jaggedness before turning it in.
Spray painting outside.
Leaving diamonds to dry inside.
DAY 3: Touch-Ups (0.5 hours)
When I came in to do touch-ups, my initial plan was to use a file or sandpaper to smooth the surface after painted (don’t think that would have worked very well thinking about it now), but when I came in I actually ended up liking the rougher surface that was on it due to the uneven paint drying. It doesn’t look like other people’s, but I like how it’s a bit different. Due to this, I decided to leave it how it was instead of trying to make the faces smooth.
My finished diamonds.
If I were trying to keep the edges smooth in the future, I really liked how Art hung his diamonds to let them dry. I saw that when I came in the morning and thought that would be a good idea in future projects!
Note: I did not take a picture of the laser cutter after using it, but put the stainless steel back to the side of the machine and made sure to turn off all the switches. In addition, when spray painting, I made sure to put cardboard under my piece to avoid a mess and leave the cardboard in a pile for others to use later.
Cost Breakdown
