Week 5
Weekly tasks
- Design and fabricate a kinetic structure using 3D printing and/or Laser Cutting. By definition such a structure has at least 3 components between which there is a mechanical transmission, but ideally your structure/sculpture/mechanism should have some function.
Used tools and materials
CO2 laser, Prusa 3D printer, wood, PETG, hot glue.Exposition
This week we were supposed to do some kinetic structure. As always my creativity took me somewhere, where my skills were not sufficient - although I have to say that I am much better at parametrization in Fusion now. I discovered something called "Change parameters" (in Modify section) where you can define your parameter, use it in sketch and change it later if you want. The inspiration were ancient theathers and their moving background - the problem with this idea was that I could not find anything like that. Indeed doing something that you don't really know how it works is fun. Maybe advise for future students: don't be like me.Collision
The main consctruction consists of plate where gears where placed. There were two kinds of gears - 24 cm and 12 cm gears. Holes were made in the large gears, where the cylinders were then placed to connect the wheel to the wave. Plate, gears and waves I chose to cut on laser cutter with parameters: 100% power and 22% speed. It was not ideal though, because the wood was burned too much. Cylinders were printed on Prusa 3D printer.
Crisis
It is hard to say what exactly went wrong. For this idea the preciseness was the key. However, laser has some beam width, 3D prinnting is also not 100% precise so the end result were not great. I tried to measure the radius of cutted holes on my plate and printed the cylinders few more times. The same problem accured with sticking cylinders to waves. I managed to put everything together but I felt quite devastated at this point.
Resolution
The construction itself was quite stable but at the same time somehow wobbly. The lifesaver was hot glue. I felt nostalgic using hot glue pistol after so many years - strings of glue everywhere and sticking our hands to different surfaces is unforgetable. I used solified glue more like additional barrier for gears to prevent falling.