Sara DeShong-Baker Project 4: Slots

(week 10)
DESIGN:
When setting up the root module, I decided to play with mirrored hexagons centered with offset circles. I added 2 'running boards' (long flanking rectangles) so that the module could still have some support structure when playing with the boolean tools.  However, I had to do some detail trimming around the entire module to get a clean version for notching. 

INSPIRATION:
Since the slots project is basically a do-anything puzzle, I thought it would be fun to do hunting elements for the root variations. It was hard not to think of this when setting up the root module because it reminded me of a scope sight. The variations are each a play on an arrow head, fletchings, and a bow scope. 

LAYOUT:

Per instructions, I did not add etching on the final pieces and laid them out on 24" x 24" instead of the original 24" x 48". I'll have a lot of non-notched drop pieces that are small enough to just act as connectors. However, I did add a dozen each notched versions of the drops as well. 

MATERIAL & RESULT:

Material is 1/8" medium brown hardboard. I like the edge darkening effect (and smell) of the laser cut pieces. Below are a few projects made with the cut finished pieces. 

Structure of pieces, loctite glue, and a modified spoke.

Purposed as a 3D business card holder for our shop's front counter, which was often crowded with cards laid flat.

Another variation on the card holder: this one displays both the front and the back, which is perfect for postcards that touring customers send us.  Made of pieces and loctite glue.

Rocketship. Just for fun. Modified spoke, pieces, loctite glue. 

LESSONS LEARNED:

- The laser is precise. I tried to play it safe (because this was my first project with the laser cutter) by making my notches 0.13 instead of exactly 0.125, but there was way too much play. I had to use the glue to keep the structures I made stable.  For my lamp and waffle projects I designed around exact measurements to avoid this. 

- More notched 'pac-man' pieces. They didn't do much for structure or balance, but were more fun than the whole drop pieces. 

Andrew Kelly: Project 4: Slots

Thematic Description

For this project I wanted to make something sharp - no obtuse angles or rounded curves. I want the slotted parts to be used to make structures that prick the sleepy builder.

Here are my initial shapes with reference boxes:

Build Notes

And here is my laid-out sheet of duplicates. I started with an array that was too dense, then moved parts around to get the most out of my material. Even so, there a few small spaces that could have been filled if the material was just one inch larger.

 

New 24x24 slot layout:

Its Alive! 

Themed and vanilla pictures of the end result:

The-Phong "James" Pham: Slots

For my design inspiration I kept skeletons in mind. When using the modular pieces in class I noticed that I wanted to use smaller pieces to have more control of my building. This made me think of the bones in my hand. There are many little intricate bones that allow the hand to take many shapes. So I made smaller pieces in hopes that I could have more control and sharper details when building a structure from the modular pieces.

A friend of mine had an extra wood board sitting in his garage, I asked him if could have a 48 by 24 inch chunk of it. He obliged and cut it for me but it came out a little wonky, I hope it won't be an issue for the laser cutter.

I worked with my grid in millimeters, for simplicity sake. I measured by wood board to be about 4 mm thick, so on the grid, I used had a major grid line every 4 mm. I figured that this way would make the creating the pieces easier for me.

Since the grid was set up the way it was it was easy for me to make the shapes I needed with just using the rectangle tool and the curve boolean. I would just overlay the rectangles and use the curve boolean to combine them. I did use the array pole for the circular pieces, I also mirrored at areas that made it convenient. 

Joseph Conover Week 9: Slots

For this project, I thought I could get a bit creative and see what I could come up with. I took this picture of Kanye West:

And traced it in Gimp:

Then imported it through InkScape, used a path tracing filter, then exported into Rhino. I wasn't sure if it would actually work, but with some messing around it did. It was kind of a time consuming process importing the image properly into rhino, so I didn't make it too complicated unfortunately:

3d Printed slots (sorry for bad camera quality)

Daedra Evans- Project 4- Slots

I wanted to create a combination of polygonal shapes for my root module for the slots project. My inspiration was two-fold, one from pop culture and the other from classic architectural design. I love the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and have always been inspired by the beauty in his creations. I chose to use elements of his stained glass work, "The Tree of Life" for a portion of my module. The long narrow pieces coupled with the rectangular aspects of the stained glass definitely played a huge part of my modular design.

The basic shapes and angles by Wright also compliment my choice of a pop culture inspiration, the "Gallifreyan" language from Doctor Who. I love the inner working of watches, clocks, and all things steampunk. I am also a huge fan of the show, Dr. Who, whose narrative centers around time and space travel. The symbols below are the language of the main character of the show, the Doctor. The reason I chose to use the symbols from the show is that they represent time and space. The imagery of the language is very akin to the movements within clocks and watches with which I am fascinated with. 

The website for the above referenced image to the Frank Lloyd Wright's "The Tree of Life"  image can be found here. The website for the above referenced Dr. Who "Gallifreyan" language is located here. 

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I began my design by using the geometric shapes of circles and rectangles. I combined and rotated the geometry to achieve the look that best represented the modern "pop deco" feel I was going for. Following the tutorial, I mirrored many of the shapes to ensure seamless design and functionality. I created multiple variations of the original module all coinciding with the design of the original piece. I created circular variations on each of my modules to keep consistent with the time theme of my inspiration. I liked how the rectangular shapes combined with the circular elements created a key-like structure in the module.

Once the outer cuts were created, I added the inner cuts which were achieved using the curve boolean tool. Ensuring each element was on the proper object layer, I began to design the engraving for each module. I kept with my design decision and artistic choices using simplistic lines that both represented components of watches and craftsman architecture.

I originally followed the notch thickness described in the tutorial for plywood underlayment, but decided to use hardboard for my material. It was necessary to adjust my modules' notches to provide a proper fit for the material. I purchased the hardboard of   5/32" thickness at Home Depot, and was already cut to the laser bed size of 48" by 24."

After finishing my variations and root module, I created an array of 7 on the x axis,  3 on the y axis and 1 on the z. I created the array multiple times to achieve the proper spacing for my modules, and to provide additional room for the additional components and drop pieces on the sheet. Ensuring that all the modules and components of my sheet were laid out correctly I saved my files for laser cutting. I really like how the final modules and sheet turned out achieving the look I wanted, and the spacing I needed.

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I have updated my slots layout according to the new laser bed dimensions of 24"x 24" I have included the new screenshot of the slot sheet for printing.  

The final result of the slots turned out predominately well. I am not sure why, but some of the pieces were not cut completely through by the laser. I decided to create my sculpture from the slots to form a church. I had fun using the unit form to make something interesting and unique. 

Blake Artesi: Slots

The slots that I decided to create came from a few different inspirations.  My big inspiration for all of these were the rims on car wheels.  The way the rims radiate their design and, while not too radiated, I still had them in mind when I created them.  Especially the one on the far left, where as you look from top to bottom, or vise versa, it's like the pieces are rotating in the middle.  Pointing down on top then it turns to point up on the bottom (spinning wheel).  Another big inspiration was my wrist watch, which is implemented mainly in the slot on the right side of the picture.  I used many polar arrays and I wanted to make the one on the right look even more "watch like" so I put in the plus shaped design in the middle.  To me it kind of resembles the hand on a watch.  For the more triangle shaped piece on top, I was still thinking of wheels, but I also started thinking of ninja throwing stars (not entirely sure why those popped into my head but they did).  So I wanted to make a triangle, even if it is small and make a shape out of it.  I simply used circles and the Curve Boolean to cut out the curved shapes int he corners of the triangle.

Philip Barker: Slots

As I worked on it I thought about slot dinosaurs. I kept messing with the design trying to come up with something different each time.

Then it hit me, what if I made something out of a kaleidoscope type design. Something that was symmetrical that I could take parts from.

 

I used line segments and arc tools for most of this design. After I had made the design I used boolean difference to select portions of the design to make into different slot designs.