Final Conclusions

This semester has wrapped up pretty nicely with all but one of my projects coming to completion. My lamp shade had a small issue with the lights that sounds to have more to do with court board flats than maker error but the important part of 3D rotational design was a complete success.

In the end, I made two complete boxes with one of them having a nice variation on the finger locked design. I incorporated my 3D design skills in Fusion360 to add in fabricated corner joints and a thicker wood material. I had some trouble working through the Trotec machine software for my much more detailed etchings but with a little patience I was able to get it cut deep enough and burn in enough to show clearly when I stained the wood. The end result was two boxes that I really enjoy and feel will last.

My copter project was a pretty big success and I’m super proud of how it tuned out. Because I was able to get it done early I had the opportunity to try different air frames for stability. I cut one from lightweight birch wood but that one broke after just a few flights (and small crashes), a 3D printed one which was a bit better but also was flimsy, and finally a milled one that held up the best. I went through a few hiccups with soldering (mistaking the LED spots for motor leads).

Conclusion: what did I learn? Well a hell of a lot. I think the biggest gem of my education here was with the Fusion 360 software. Being able to prototype and create a complex object in 3d space first, with several different components with their own individual designs, was very rewarding. Being able to take those designs and create them out of a place of theory and bring them into reality was another very rewarding experience. It allowed me to see how the natural world is very different than just what’s on a computer screen. Little offsets make a huge difference, material composition changes the end product in great ways, subtraction vs additive creation makes a big deal not only to the time it takes to create something but also in figuring out if a project is actually viable in the end or not quickly. Picking the right way to bring a design into the real world makes a very big difference.

 

Michael