For our midterm project, we made a dice shaker, where you load a small dice in the “Dice box” and roll it on the other end.
Here is our original design drawn in 2D. Unlike making a simple box using a template, it is really helpful to have a model for reference throughout our process of making it from scratch.
Here are the mechanics we used. We used the gear generator to generate printable and usable gear for our model.
We first made a low fidelity model using cardboard. Cutting the cardboard pieces was much faster than wood as we didn’t need to cut through several time.
There cardboard model worked, although there was some issues and improvement such as we found out that there is one spot where we don’t need to use a gear and another spot where we should use a gear. We made the revision and made a second model using wood.
The wood model worked, but there were some extra spacing due to the long sticks that made the model roll less smoothly. We also resize all the holes for a tigher fit. Here is our test fit.
Dr. Biseti also suggested us to cut out more space on the bigger pieces to reduce weight. After many revisions, here is our final print file:
Here is a picture for the mem for how many revisions we had.
For high fidelity prototype, we first found the suitable size for press fitting. We added some decorations, snap rings, and reduced some weight of the project but doubling the thickness of the gears.
And here is our final model: We added some decorations, snap rings, and reduced some weight of the project but doubling the thickness of the gears. stickers and we used a metal piece as our handle to roll.
Proof of cleanup:
Cost Analysis: $230
Labor: 10$/hrs
Labor: 10$/hrs
We didn’t take record of how long we spent on this project. But here is an estimation:
Designing and revising the files-3hrs (Class time + free time)
Laser Cutting the files – 30min + 2hrs + 2 hrs =4hrs 30min
Metal Cutting – 30min (the cut was only 1 min but I had take extra time on seeing the demonstration on how to adjust the file for it to be printable)
Assembly, post processing, other stuff- 1hrs + 2 hrs +2 hrs = 5hrs
We did most of the part together but sometime when one is available and the other is not, one of us will go and get started, so we will minus 3hrs in the end
Total: 13hrs x 2 -3 = 23hrs ->$230
Material: $23.73
Cardboard – Free, Used leftover boxes from online shopping
Wood – 4 pieces Birch plywood, $5 each Total: $20
Round wooden stick – $0.56/ piece x4 = $2.26
Bearings – $0.29/piece x5 = $1.47
Files, laser cutter, water jet cutter, hammer, sticks, Band saw, sandpaper all shared equipment from OEDK -> $0
Total cost: $253.73
We had fun doing this project and really learnt a lot, especially from trails and errors.
