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.

Comments(1)

One of the awesome tools at the FabLab is a ShopBot machine. In this video, Jon guides Jeff and I through the process of using the machine. In this case, we’re cutting a piece for a RepRap machine.

FabLab ShopBot Demo from Zach ‘Iowa’ Hoeken on Vimeo.

Comments(0)

Greetings.

I am one of the Fab Fellows who recently joined up with SSBx. I am currently finishing a masters degree in Architecture, so I have strong interests in fabrication, design, and sustainability. My experience in fabrication was with different machines and programs than what the FabLab uses, so I have been spending some time getting used to the equipment.

This week I tested out the ShopBot’s (CNC router) surface milling capabilities. Basically, it can be used as a big cutter that will cut out shapes and drill holes, or it can be used to mill fully 3D objects and surfaces. There are several steps to the surface milling process, but it was relatively simple to get a small test part milled.

Here’s a quick outline of the process I used:

First I used a 3D cad/cam program to model the part on a computer. In Rhinoceros I created a warped plane with a raised ‘SSBx’ since I know that Rhino is good at exporting 3D files in file types that can be understood by other programs.

Next I had to take the file into Mill Wizard, which is the program that lays out the paths that the tool will follow in a language that the machine can understand. During this process I had to make decisions regarding the level of precision I wanted versus the amount of time milling would take. This trade off is based on the size of the mill bit and how far you want it to step over on each pass of the bit back and forth. The smaller the step over, the greater the precision (its similar in concept to approximating the area of a shape or curve in calculus).

I also decided to create a roughing pass and a finishing pass to speed up the milling process. The roughing pass uses a larger bit so that it can remove material faster. It is calculated so that it leaves a small amount of material to then be removed by the finishing pass, which uses a smaller bit and very tiny step over to give finer detail.

After that, all I had to do was load the file into the ShopBot software, set up the router, then hit start. Two hours later, I had a beautifully milled surface. Besides making 3D parts and irregular geometries easy to fabricate, surface milling also works great for making molds.

The focus of my fellowship will be using the ShopBot CNC router and other tools to recycle wood pallets into furniture and possibly installations. I am tentatively calling my project “6 Months, 6 Designs” where each month I create, test, and fabricate a more ambitious design. My first design challenge will be park benches.

More about that coming soon…

-Nathan

Comments(0)

I’m Paris Marashi, an incoming Fellow at SSBxFab. Today I got a tour and overview of the FabLab, and did some experimenting with the laser-cutter, for a Thing-a-Day posting. Thing-a-Day invites artists and creators of all types and backgrounds to join a daily creative endeavor where everyone who signs up commits to making one thing (project, sketch, exercise) per day and shares it online on their collective blog. I took this hand drawing of mine and lasercut the surface. Seeing designs so beautifully translated into wood opens up a lot of room for new possibilities. I posted more images on flickr.
There’s still some time left to apply for the Fellow Program (deadline is February 15th)

The wonderful people from Mudbone created beautiful prints from this:

Comments(0)