Sheena Meany: Week 6 Project 3 Waffle Construction

 Concept: 

    My initial concept involved doing a cartoonized campfire to be able to hold a candle. Originally I thought of doing a campfire, but since it is a fire I thought it would seem arbitrary to onlookers. I enjoy creating things from nature, which is why I specifically chose a fireplace to reference for this project. 

Technique: 

To start off my object, I used a Parabloid to create the base of the shape. Afterward, I created a basic "fire" shape using the curve tool. I then used the ExtrudeSrf command to bring it up a moderate amount to the height I wanted the highest point of the fire to be. Afterward, I used the ExtrudeCrvToPoint tool so that it would meet at the center of the fire. Then, I used the BooleanDifference command to intersect the two surfaces so that everything above the curved lines would be removed. In order to create the wood pieces, I used the Box command twice and rotated them perpendicular to one another, and stacked them on top of each other, under the fire piece. 

Materials: 

In keyshot, I assigned a wood material to the main model in order to look close or similar to the MDF material. For the candle, I used rubber to simulate the wax material that candles are made of. I added a sphere where the light of the candle would be and added an emission texture to it. 

I planned to make my piece out of MDF in order for a good mixture between fire and wood and to showcase the candle I planned to put inside. For any pieces that were too small to fit in, I planned to use Loctite for parts of the post-processing. I submitted my file on Wednesday but unfortunately, the laser machine broke the Friday morning. I wish I could have the physical project as I was excited to use it. 

Final Product: 

Due to the laser machine malfunctioning at higher power levels, I was not able to cut through the MDF that I decided to use. I used a mixture of wood and MDF to have variety in my final cut, so while the wood did cut better, due to the MDF not being able to cut all the way through I was not able to get a completely finished product. While I wish I had time to buy more material, I had to attend to the final project at the same time. I also wish I had thicker pieces to cut, as the thick pieces would easily snap off of each other making the structure flimsy and unreliable. 

Materials: 

MDF 

Plywood

Loctite/Duct Tape/Scotch Tape