The bottle caps put me in a chess set frame of mind during which time I also made a completely cardboard set. The inspiration that set me making this set was to make one side be “positive” shapes and the other side “negative” shapes. I had to modify the board from the bottle cap set for this one, to make it larger. As a result, it no longer fit into the bed of the laser cutter, causing me to break it up into a modular board, something that I had considered for the bottle cap set as well. There are many more projects that are in the works. So stay tuned for updates.

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A very important subject that SSBx FabLab has been looking to explore is recycling, again with the goal to show how individuals can give a new life to things that would otherwise be destined to become scrap or waste. At lunch I saw a lot of bottle caps lying around and started to wonder what could I use those for. I decided to try to make a chess set by etching symbols for the pieces into the tops of the bottle caps. It has worked pretty well after a few iterations and some tweaking of the power of the laser cutter. I made the board for this set out of cardboard by etching the dark squares onto it. Now all I need is  many, many more bottle caps……..

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I have spent much of the last two weeks exploring things that transition from 2D to 3D. Recently I remembered just how cool balsa wood gliders were. I searched around our FabLab and found that we had some balsa wood stock. I set out to make a simple laser cut glider. Thus far I have taken it through two iterations although the first may actually fly better than the second. I found that a very good way to allow for selective weighting of the aircraft was to take two neodymium magnets and sandwich them across the nose of the aircraft (as pictured) the movement of the magnets allowing iterative experimentation of how changes in the center of mass of an airplane affects its flight.

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I saw a birdhouse over the weekend and decided to build one out of cardboard, again using press fit construction. The desire and motivation for these projects are to engage children and adults alike with a physical object, here a birdhouse. Hopefully, it will not only pull people in but also demonstrate the range of things that can be made turning 2D design into 3D construction. As with most of the projects I have completed thus far, I plan to make tutorials to guide people through their construction. If you are interested in the designs, immediately feel free to shoot me an email and I can send you the designs.

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From here I began to explore more ambitious projects which had similar themes for me. This was cardboard construction without glue. My next piece was a Newton’s Cradle constructed out of cardboard but using magnets instead of conventional steel balls.

The idea in this project was to explore two different physical phenomena in an engaging manner. I was hoping to demonstrate the conservation of momentum inherent in the workings of a Newton’s Cradle but also to demonstrate some things about the interaction between magnets, particularly what can be done with repulsive forces caused by the interaction between like magnetic charges (N-N or S-S). I took advantage of my knowledge of press fits in cardboard in this construction. (Video to come)

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My position with the SSBx FabLab falls somewhere between design resident and employee. I am working full time for the summer as an intern with the FabLab and doing a UROP (undergraduate research opportunities program) with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a collaboration between the Public Service Center (PSC) and the Media Lab. I will be around everyday working on design and fabrication. I am a rising senior in mechanical engineer studying at MIT.

Familiarization with FabLab Machinery:

I started work with SSBx at the beginning of June and have been settling in and familiarizing myself with the tools around me.

I started by exploring the the laser cutter and studying Google Sketch-Up and Adobe Illustrator. With this in mind I designed and fabricated a Batman Box (at first, as just a plain box. Then I added the Batman logo to it both as a vector cut and as a rastared etching.) 

During this project I realized there was a need for a systematic consideration of the type of interference fit that would be effective for cardboard. As a result I would up making test pieces and exploring how cardboard fits together with various geometries. I was then able to finish up the box project shortly there after.

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Sustainable South Bronx recently co-hosted a neighborhood block party, as part of our work with the Active Living by Design Program. This was a great opportunity to have a good a time with our neighbors and also get the word out about all of SSBx’s programs, including our fab lab.

Ed Bringas, one our design fellows, worked on building a display table made entirely of cardboard. He used Google Sketchup to design the legs and base, lasercut the drawings, assembled it together. By cutting many copies of the same drawing file, he was able to glue layers on top each to form a strong structure.  Ed works closely with a non-profit design group in New York called Adapative Design, that specializes in building cardboard furniture for disabled children.

We set his table up at the block party in a visible place, and laid out some pieces of a cardboard toy called “GIK” on top.

GIK was developed at MIT by Neil Gershenfeld and his children, and is created using parametric design software that allows the pieces to snap together as a “friction fit” or “press fit.”

Click here to see the whole Flickr Album from the Block Party

GIK is currently being developed as a business by Neil’s brother Alan Gershenfeld, and partners Michael Angst and Larry Marder. A partnership between SSBxFab and this GIK business is being explored as a possible revenue raising strategy for fab labs.

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There’s alot of photos that have yet to make the SSBxFab blog, so I created a flickr stream with various pictures from the first few months here.

SSBxFab is still in phase 1. We’re doing fundraising and program development for Phase 2 (which will be in a permanent space, with more machines, including ones that will allow us to work with metal), and also working on projects to prove the viability and demand for community based design and manufacturing that is environmentally conscious.

Our Design Fellows have gotten the ball rolling on some great projects,  and we’ve also seen some great excitement and participation from youth and adults in the community.

Below are some photo albums from the SSBxFab Flickr stream, showing some initial work with making furniture from scraps, doing laser etching for printmaking, and teaching basic electronics to kids in the neighborhood.  Stay tuned for photo and video updates on other exciting projects, including concrete mold making for the South Bronx Greenway, urban irrigation pumps for NYC Greenstreets, rapid-protoyped wind harnessing devices, and solar powered robotics!

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Gabe and I have been experimenting with recycling scrap wood (mostly old wood pallets at this point) into furniture. Here is an update on our first prototype from several weeks ago.

When we started this project we had a number of concerns regarding sustainability. Most of these concerns boiled down to issues of efficiency: efficiency of production, efficiency of materials, etc. As much as possible, we tried to reduce energy usage and material waste through design.

The first big obstacle was the irregularity of the wood that we are using. The planks from the old wood pallets are all different sizes and different types of wood (though much of it is oak). Many planks are split or damaged, and most of the wood is very brittle, so there is considerable weakness across the grain of the wood. This greatly limits the types of design that we can pursue. The more irregularity in the wood, the more energy we would have to expend to clean up the edges of the planks for many types of joints.

Luckily, our first obstacle ended up being an opportunity that gave us a distinctive design aesthetic. We layered and glued all of the planks into a slab of wood that we could then put on the 3 axis CNC router to mill. The layering turns the irregularities of the wood into a beautiful striation of colors. Knots, splits, and gaps in the wood are free to show through and become a part of the appeal of the aesthetic.

For the first test we milled a curved surface out of a small slab of light and dark oak planks. We were surprised with how nice the wood was once we cut down into it. The contrast between the smooth, elegant surface on one side and the weathered, irregular wood on the other side turned out quite nice. The surface makes a comfortable seat, now we just need to design and fabricate a frame to put it on.

There were a few issues with this prototype. First, it took quite a bit of effort to disassemble the pallets and remove all of the nails, and most of the struts we were unable to remove all of the nails from, so we could not use those on the CNC router. It also took a lot of effort to glue the slats together. With our limited resources, we did not have any large bar clamps so we had to glue then nail each slat as we went. Obviously putting nails into something that you are about to put on a mill is not the best way to go about this. We confined where we put the nails so that we would not hit them when we milled the surface, but due to other issues, we still ended up hitting a few of them anyway. Luckily they were only small finishing nails so they did not damage the bit.

Another issue is the amount of time that it took to mill the surface. Since this was our first test mill with this type of wood (and since most of it was very hard oak) we were very conservative with the travel speed on the mill. We also used a small bit (1/4”) to get a good level of precision out of the finished surface. The whole job (roughing and finishing passes) took several hours. In future prototypes we will be using a much larger bit for the roughing pass, and then we might try different designs that allow for more localized areas of detail for the finishing passes. This will cut down the mill time considerably.

So our first attempt was a success. We found a way to use highly irregular wood but still make a beautiful, continuous surface without having to pre-mill any of the individual pieces. The finished product has an attractive aesthetic that shows both the initial condition of the wood and the hidden potential within. There are issues to be worked out to further streamline this process, but they are all manageable obstacles that will hopefully yield fruitful opportunities for further design inspiration.

More to come soon,

Nathan

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Today at the Sustainable South Bronx Fablab I made some jewelry using a laser cutter, 1/16″ thick wood, and ready made earring hooks that I brought from a craft store. One of todays earring designs was inspired by a series of QR-code jewelry i previously made at the Fablab:

QR codes link to websites, personal messages, phone numbers, and images using only your cell phone! You can send messages to be discovered and provide specific, location based information…Say you want to label an object or a living thing. Perhaps you want to provide information, or learn more about a place:

If you want to read a QR code next time you see one on the street, all you need to do is a download a QR code reader for your phone model. If your phone doesn’t have a 2D barcode reader already, you can find and install a QR Code reader here. This week’s QR code series was inspired by Masaru Emoto’s book, The Hidden Messages in Water, also on Amazon. Masaru is a scientist who has documented how the messages we send change the physical properties of water. Since our bodies are 70% water, I made QR code earrings that link to the mobile-encoded wikipedia entry for words love and gratitude.

First, I went to Semapedia to download a mobile version of the wikipedia entries I selected, here. I added these designs in illustrator, used the “live paint” feature to turn the images into vector graphics (for crisp, clear etchings).

Next, I set the lines I wanted to cut to .001 point. The files were ready to print, and we just had to set up the hardware. Jon prepared the suction device (attached to the laser cutter) to extract any fumes and dust particles.

After the pieces were etched and cut, I was able to pop them out of the wooden frame. The results:

I also made these earrings today using illustrators rounded rectangle tool:

Finally, here is a laser-etched leather bracelet– The etchings are from one of my illustrations. I cut the leather in a swirly asymmetrical fashion.

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