Projects Completed
I completed the following three projects over a four day (6 hour) span:
- Notebook Design
- Water Bottle Design
- Thing-Verse 3D Design
Notebook Design
For the notebook design, I had to create two 5.5 inch by 4.25 inch covers due to the constraints I received. I decided to use the laser to engrave a design on my front cover and to cut out my design on the back. My front cover design was an engraved Nike logo with a #23 (for Micheal Jordan) and my back cover design consisted of a cut out Jordan logo with the word "jumpman" engraved below (for Micheal Jordan). I created the design using Illustrator and it can be found below.
After completing my design in Illustrator, I used the laser cutter to produce my project. A picture of the covers can be found below. The material I chose was matboard with a white inner layer as I believed the colors would create a bold contrast. After the laser created my design, I cut out twenty 4.25 inch by 5.5 inch pieces of paper using the paper cutter.
Finially, I punched holes into both my covers and sheets of paper in order to attach them together. After this I threaded a plastic spiral binder through the holes and cut the excess with a pair of pliers. My final design can be found below.
Water Bottle Design
For the water bottle design, I began by finding the dimensions. I measured that the water bottle was five and a half inches tall and it had a diameter between 2.9 and 3 inches. Using these measurements, I was able to calculate that my design could have a maximum height of 5.5 inches and a maximum width of roughly 9 inches. The design I chose was a pattern that makes up a star. I put very small text in the two bottom corners of my design. This text is the name of the website in which I found the image. My design in Illustrator is pictured below.
Next, I used the rotational jig in the laser to engrave my design into the water bottle. This device rotates objects while the laser engraves in order to produce a better quality final product. A few pictures of this process can be found below.
Thing-Verse Design
For my 3D project, I used the laser to produce a design of my choice from thingverse.com. I chose a tree design that has cut out circles at the end of each branch to hold jewelry. I then downloaded the Illustrator files needed to make this device from the website. An example of the tree the user on thing-verse made can be found below.
After downloading the files, I made sure all the strokes within the design were read with a thickness of 0.0001. This ensures that the tree will be cut out by the laser. I chose to use matboard as my material for my product and a few pictures of the tree being cut out can be found below.
Finally I put the two pieces of the design together to form the 3D tree design. The final product is pictured below.
Summary
I have learned a variety of different things from both of these projects. Through both processes, I learned how to better use Illustrator and create more intricate designs. The water bottle design taught me how to use the rotational jig in order to engrave a circular object on the laser. On the other hand, the notebook design taught me how to create a high quality product using matboard. Finally, the thing-verse project showed me how to recreate the products of others onto different material and in different sizes. All three of my final products can be found below.