The Final (College) Blog Post

This semester, I was fortunate enough to be able to further my knowledge of CAD modeling in an independent study with Professor Bryan Cera.Taking it during my last semester proved to be a challenge in and of itself, especially when I was taking other senior-level courses alongside it. However, one of the courses was a math class called Abstract Algebra, and if not for my experience in CAD modeling, I'm not sure I would have even passed it.

The first part of the semester included familiarizing myself with Autodesk's new CAD modeling software - Fusion 360. I was previously accustomed to using Inventor, so there was a bit of a learning curve involved in using Fusion 360. The controls were different, it saves your projects in the ever-elusive Cloud, and is a lot easier to pick up once you gain your bearings. The practice sketches and models below helped me pick right up where I'd left off in Inventor.

 






As I mentioned before, I was able to apply a lot of the work I did for this course to my abstract algebra class. A concept that was often discussed in class was the idea of the rotations of regular solids, and regular prisms. I used quite a bit of modeling for that in papers written on the subject.

The above 3-prism has 3 rotations for one triangular face, and below the same prism has been "flipped" to show 3 more rotations for that face.

My original intent was to showcase the applicable principles of group theory in abstract algebra through 3D-printed prisms, regular and irregular solids. However, despite the many tries and the experimentation with different settings on the printer, I only managed one successful print that did not break off midway through. Although that was a frustrating end to the project, I found that mathematical modeling via CAD software has more applications than meets the eye. (Updates with pictures of the failed prints to come.)

Final Project: The Final Assembly!

Since all of my parts were printed, I was able to tap all of the pieces for the connector rod to screw into. I then sanded the lower two parts of the wand to smooth out the rough edges, since one of them warped a little bit. I then set the two halves of the wand up in the makeshift stand and painted them. Once they were dry, I wet sanded some imperfections out and then did another coat of spray paint. The next step was using a black acrylic paint to rub into the wand, which gave it an aged look.

One thing I had not originally planned on including in my design was the white strip with markings (shown below). Bryan had the idea of printing it in black and white vinyl and adhering it to the wand, which I honestly think brought the caliber of the project waaaaaay up. We did a test with the vinyl, then adjusted the vectors in Photoshop and Illustrator to  It actually looked like the real thing.

When everything was sanded, painted, and adhered to my approval, it was time to assemble the wand. Once again, Bryan was a HUGE source of guidance as he soldered the wiring together for the circuit. The tapped rods had to be shortened again to screw perfectly into both halves of the wand, so some superglue was needed to make certain we wouldn't have any problems going forward. As we wired it up, we did continual tests for the sake of testing. (God forbid we put it together and it didn't work!) The wand did indeed work, to my relief.

 

More pictures to come later! I'm so happy with how this project turned out. I don't think I've ever been so excited about a project (or worked harder on one, for that matter). Thanks again to my professor, Bryan Cera, for the hours of help and words of encouragement during the course of this project.

Virtual Vehicle: Final Make

As I've said before, I'm terrible at keeping up with blogging....so much for forming a habit. Regardless of that, our final car print turned out fairly well, although we did have a bit of an issue with detail parts being a bit small to actually attach to the car. Seeing as I was much less comfortable with Inventor when we were actively working on this project, I enjoyed putting the vehicle together. It was a growing process for me in terms of using Inventor for more than just individual sketches and parts, as well as a jumping off point for getting comfortable with 3D-printing.

 

Final Project: Design and Printing Updates

Hello, all! I'm excited to say that the Elder Wand is progressing nicely. Just to recap, earlier in the week, I printed the first two parts (out of the four 3D-printed parts) of the wand, sanded them, and cleaned up some imperfections with epoxy. Since the wand parts will all screw together with pieces of metal rod, I tapped the wand pieces and the metal rod pieces as well. Just putting the two pieces together made me so excited for the end result.

The tapped ends of each wand segment will screw into this handy base that Bryan had in the Atelier.

I spent quite some time working out how I would get the hardware into my wand, especially putting the battery into the base of the wand. This required a bit of reworking and continuous tweaking, but I'm pleased with the final design. Thank you to Bryan for putting together the hardware that will go into the base!

A quarter-cut of the base design, which allows for the appropriate hardware to be inserted or removed.

The final assembly.

What's next, you might ask? I left the Atelier Saturday night, unabashedly exhausted and also satisfied with a full day's work, while the other two parts finished printing. Now I'll just have to get rid of the support material, sand the wand to get rid of the obvious print grain appearance, and paint the parts. Bryan suggested I print the wand in a couple pieces, so I'll be painting it all together to get a consistent look for each piece. Once it's dry, I'll be able to work out any remaining imperfections and put together the hardware. 

More updates will come after tomorrow's painting!!!!! I cannot use enough exclamation marks to convey my excitement!

Final Project: Initial Wand Prints

After some test prints, I was able to make a lot of progress on the wand design. The parts will screw together, made possible by tapping the models. Yay for more tool skills!

 

I've had a lot of interesting ideas and suggestions come up that have challenged me to think creatively for this project. Creating the individual parts was strangely relaxing, and I found myself working for hours at a time on design tweaks. I also created CAD models of the individual hardware pieces (like the LED and switch), so I'm very pleased with the assembly so far! (Pictures to come...)

The Wand Chooses the Wizard, Mr. Potter...

Before you interrupt me Kanye-style, just remember that I am the girl who got an incantation from the Harry Potter series tattooed on her skin for life. You live by the wand, you die by the wand....or something to that effect. In my younger and more vulnerable years, J.K. Rowling gave me some advice I've been turning over in my mind ever since...just kidding. Wrong book. But I was heavily influenced by Harry Potter throughout my whole life. Therefore, it's natural that I should want to bring to life one of the most iconic symbols of the series: the Elder Wand.

*Ooooooh, Ahhhh*

Components and Materials

I intend to 3D-print the wand in its entirety, except for a small LED bulb at the end of it. I think that since my project will be primarily composed of 3D-printed material, it won't be complex by way of its components. However, since I want to go a step further and add the LED bulb, I think I'll need to create a component that will enable me to switch it on and off as desired. I will use Autodesk Inventor to create a scalable design, so that I can recreate the wand as necessary.

Visuals

An LED-bulb used in a similar way that I envision for this project. Threading it through the middle of the wand will probably be my best bet.

Close-up illustration from the Harry Potter Wikia site - yeah. That's a real thing.

Seeing as I'd never actually spend money on a regular wooden one from Universal Studios, I thought this would be the perfect time for the skills I've learned in this class to be put to use making something I've always wanted to have in my literary-nerd-collection.

**Update as of 12/1/2015**
I'd mocked up my original thought process for this project in CAD, before I'd thought about making this project an assembly, given the size limitations on the printers we are using.
Thoughts are always welcome. :)

The unblemished, undetailed, boring version. *yawn*

Final Make: Metal Vessel

I'd first like to acknowledge the fact that I, Amanda Aalpoel, Actual Human, used Real, Actual Power Tools to accomplish the final part of this project. I, who avoid using sharp objects and power tools whenever possible, and therefore should not be allowed near them due my fear of cutting off an appendage or six.

The Actual Drill Press *oohs, ahhs*

This project was such a huge learning experience for me, who has no experience whatsoever in metal crafting. I now have some small idea of the capacity of patience (and much more skill than I possess at the moment) necessary to create beautiful artwork or just something really cool.

If I had the opportunity to do this project again, I think I would approach the design in a slightly different way in that I would like to see what it would have looked like with more tabs and screws to hold it together. (I proved to be extremely unskilled when scoring my aluminum, even with practice beforehand.) Also, working with a long piece of metal that got in the way a lot of the time made me a little nervous when trying to maneuver it while scoring and using the drill press.

Metal Crown, mark 1, 2, and 3.

Given the opportunity to do a project similar to this, I might go for something a bit simpler in terms of folds, or at least cutting and scoring. I did enjoy working on this project, overall.

Insta-worthy photo...hashtag-MakeThinkMake

The Crown is Restored! Huzzah!

I've made some design improvements to my metal crown that I'm happy with. As mentioned in my previous post, I was unsure whether the one tab would be sufficient for my final model once made in metal. So, I played around a bit with the idea of three tabs that would hold one screw each, junked that idea, and simply made another tab of the same dimensions and moved them around a bit.

The final unfolded model, which I then exported to a .dwg file format.

One interesting thing that came up was that I only had to make one corner seam before making the two individual bends, which I'm assuming was due to the fact that both tabs were sketched on the same plane and offset in the same way. Yay for less work! Just kidding, since I get to do the cardboard check again....

Cardboard Design Check

For this part of the sheet metal vessel project, I was reminded how much patience is required for cutting and scoring cardboard, and how little patience I actually have. The cuts for the bottom of the crown were probably the most difficult (besides the tabs), because neither inner nor outer cut techniques were a good solution. I think that will make it difficult when transitioning to metal.

My cardboard model, complete with screws, made me rethink my design a little bit as far as the tabs. I'm going to try to use two smaller tabs with one screw each, or a longer tab with three screws. Stay tuned for Metal Crown v2.0....

Tabs and Stuff

Adding the tab(s) was relatively more difficult in practice than during the demo, but that might be because of all the weird faces of my model that got in the way. It didn't make my life easy, to say the least. So far, I've only added one tab/fastener set. I kind of like the idea of having it fasten in one place. For now... I think it would be awkward to have all of the faces use tabs. It might need to be made of several pieces if I chose that route. All things I have to consider yet!

 The unfolded view - this will be pretty easy to assemble once made in metal.

I also found a view called "realistic" when browsing through that menu, which made it look even cooler.