Monday, March 18, 2024

Laser Cut Basics 101: Phone Holder

 

Basic Project Laser Cut Phone Holder

Once again the challenge for a student using the school laser cutter is to look at projects that could be completed and completed using design (Sketch Up) for the base and the back of the phone and Gimp to locate the karate kicking figure that provided the balance for the stand.

The stand measured 80mm across at the base and is 150mm high.   The design in its current form took two minutes to laser cut out.

A revision of the form is required as the student discovered that the stick figure while providing balance and looking humours and eye catching also was quite fragile.  The design was only 6mm thick as it had been cut from 6mm MDF wood.   Testing showed that if it was dropped that the weight of the base could easily cause a crack in the figure as the legs were quite.  The intention to address this issue with the print is to 3D Print the figure and combine it with the base of the laser cutter and then spray the two elements to link them together.

Basic 3D Printing Projects: Labels and Tags

We have in the past provided extensive details about the process where prints are created, because of that we are going to supply a link to previous years work here and further examples here.

One of our most popular posts on this blog is a 'how to beginners 3D Print' created by some of our students.   This video is linked here.

This design here shown left is a Y3 student designing something for the first time with Tinkercad.   The design measured 65mm across and 50mm high in addition to being 5mm thick.   This print has a total time for completion of just under two hours.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Laser Cut Project: LED Light Stand/Combination

Laser Cut Project: LED Light

Challenge Idea: The student who has been working to extend themselves using the laser cutter has been looking online for interesting and creative projects that she can be involved with and develop further, including the possibility of using the 3D Printers or other technology to enhance the project.

In this early example prototype the student has taken a basic box shape, introduced tabs into it so that the box can locked or be held together.   The student has used Sketch Up to design the shape.

As the light which is intended to be exposed by the shape of the box needed additional ways to allow light to leave.   The student decided to experiment by introducing the circles which can be clearly seen in the photograph.    The addition of a basic LED light is intended to be mounted inside the shape.

The design is expected to go through several different refinements and revisions as the student works (independently) to test and look at developing this.  In its present state the box took ten minutes total to print, the dimensions are 100mm across, 120m high.   The wood being used is 6mm MDF.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Using Tinkercad AR Feature to Add Depth to Prints

 One of the challenges to consider is ways to continue to motivate students using 3D Printing, particuarly when they have worked with the material and design features before.   We also have had considerable experience using Tinkercad to design the prints that we are making.   Last year we had students who started to experiment with using the AR feature that is available via the Tinkercad APP (this feature is not available with the desktop).

This allows us to look at designs prior to printing them to get a feel for their dimensions and to consider where they might be placed, and if there are any potential faults with the design with the design is enlarged.

A design from scratch, from an eight year old in the classroom, shown left when enlarged and then AR into the students hand in the classroom showed a clear issue with the front left leg (which is here on the right hand side).   The student prior to printing was able to use this feature of Tinkercad to determine that the leg needed to be better attached to the design and also the placement of the leg would suggest that it would need to be strengthened to ensure that it was robust, as once the rafting was removed there was a good chance that the design would really struggle.    By using the feature at this stage it meant that a print would be redesigned and therefore would occur when the print had more chance of success.

Other examples can be shown left - in this example a student designing for the first time using Tinkercad, this is the badge design, which is a typical first step for students to create.

There are tutorials including step by step videos on this site created by students from our school.

This design typically can be completed in a short time frame even by a student that could be described as a novice student.

In the design shown left, while aspects of it look comparable to the design above the student (who is an eight year old student) needed to look at the hole in the top left hand corner, the aspects of the design which is the soccer ball - comparing the difference that it was anticipated to look like, and how it could be redesigned.

The print took two hours to complete and the dimensions of the print measured 100mm across, was 75mm high and 20mm wide.   The student is intending to look at making changes to the design to streamline this.

Monday, March 4, 2024

Laser Cut Projects: Continued Expansion

 

The Laser Cut Earring project/small scale business is continuing to gather pace.   The students who is responsible for this is refining her designs, including the placement of the holes to attach the earrings to the loop holders, 

She has started to develop ideas such as the finish of the product including experimenting with the staining of the wood (coffee is something that is proving effective).

Central to this idea of using the Laser Cutter for the design is the fact that combined with the technology and the free software available the earrings can be produced for a minimal cost - even allowing for this the student is looking to simply run a small scale business without the need for significant overheads.

This will be documented moving forward during the course of the school year.

Game Board Basic Design:

The same student who is responsible for the earrings project is looking to further develop their skills with the laser cutter.   

In this example she has decided to look at designing a board game using the 3D Printer to create the board.   This is her basic example she has a board and placed some semi-random examples on each of the squares.   The student also designed some basic instructions on each of the squares as can be clearly seen on the left.

The student is revising the board as it stands (which is currently 'busy') and is looking to play test this idea to add depth to it.   It goes without saying that this will be revised and reworked during the course of the school year and we will continue to update the process and product as it develops.

Monday, February 26, 2024

Laser Cut 101: Plant Wall Stands

Challenge: To extend a student using a Laser Cutter during independent work time.

Background: This students has shown a considerable talent to independently work on design projects using the school laser cutter, GIMP and Sketch-Up to design project, material and works.   In this instance we were looking for short term projects, ones that the student could complete easily and use as a starting point for something further.

In this example we used a common search engine to look for 'interesting laser cut projects' and saw various hanging stands.   The student took the concept and used Sketch-Up to design a three piece laser cut with the intention of using it to have a small pot plant placed upon it.    The project was cut from the MDF and then glued together using PVA wood glue.   

The next steps for this student are the key.   The project works, the time is exceptionally short (less than five minutes to laser cut the design) - the questions posed to the student: how stable is the design? How much weight can the design hold? How can they add details or features? How can they increase the impact of the design? Would a different wood make a difference? 

Left: The final design shown left having been spray painted and then mounted on the wall.   Given that the design is MDF the decision was made to mount LEGO plants on the holder to act as a test item.

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Laser Cutting: Earrings

Challenge: To extend a senior student at our school with the use of the laser cutter.   

Background: This student has completed a number of projects during the past few years, starting with Tinkercad using an iPad and has advanced to working with a laptop and using Gimp and Sketchup.  

The challenge for the student at the moment is to use the technology to work on projects independently to extend herself further.  With our recent (the end of 2023) School Market Day one of the significant projects that was created was using the 3D Printers and Laser Cutter to produce earrings.

The student has combined some of the ideas that they saw last year to work on original ideas for a series of earrings.   

There is the option of using the 3D Printer which produces the PLA/plastic designs.   However this student wanted to use the laser cutter to produce something along similar lines.    The student has started creating a range of ideas.   She has used some online software primarily Sketchup to create a range of geometric shapes - which are shown on the left.  

Once these have been designed and created they have then been printed out using the industrial sized laser cutter.   Each of the individual prints has then been removed from the main sheet of plywood.    When the prints have been removed in these examples they have then had coffee stained into the wood.   The final aspect of the designs has been the attaching of the earring metal clips to the pre-made holes in the shapes.    These have been purchased locally from a craft shop for a minimal amount.

The second kind of design potential was created by using Gimp to convert a freely available picture and to use the image such as shown with the cactus designs on the left.

Level of Difficulty for the Project: The individual earrings are low - however this is intended to be a long term project with a number of aspects to it with a variety of designs.   For instance a challenge for the student is to produce original laser cut stands to display the earrings for instances when they are going to be displayed.

Size: These are a variety of standard earrings sizes depending on the design of the individual objects.

Timeframe: Each of these individual laser cuts are approximately thirty seconds in length.   There is a slight variation depending on the depth and width of each print.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Laser Cutting: Students Basic Projects to Start the School Year


Challenge: To introduce Laser Cutting to students in the junior school.

Background: Its 2024 - this is another school year in New Zealand, in a junior classroom where the students are seven and eight years old.  Again this year we are looking at producing projects and engaging the students with a range of activities.   This year to create something different for 'the last stand' we are wanting to introduce the concept of Laser Cutting to the students.

This was a short project created by a senior student (twelve year old) at the school which is intended to excite the juniors into following the example.   This project is intended as an introductory example so that the students can get the 'feel' for the laser cutter in a short space of time.   

Level of Difficulty for the Project: Low.  The student involved selected an image online with the intention of it being a silhouette.  They then used GIMP to introduce a circle as the background, converting the file in the process making it suitable for laser cutting, in this case a background of a circle was chosen.   It is going to be passed over to Y3 and Y4 students in the coming days.

Size: The design is currently 150mm across.   The bamboo that is used for the wood (this is not MDF) was chosen as something durable that could be handled but there is not intended to be any sealing or painting of the wood, the idea is to complete the project as quickly as possible.

Timeframe: The speed of the laser cutter is one of the best things about it.  Three of these were completed in under ten minutes - the intention is to push these out for a number of students (a class) in short order.

What we would do differently/next steps for students: The image shown above while striking has not worked perfectly, there was some loss inside the interior of the flowers.  The purpose of the laser cut is another issue - at present the idea is to create a stencil - but this is not easily possible unless the wood is spray painted, which would affect its presentation.   This will be developed further.