CNC Milling

A rather simple and efficient process. I just took the Rhino model into Rhino Cam and had Bill help me set up the tool path. It took an hour to mill this 18×24x4.5 inch model.

Some notes about the process, etc…it can be difficult to find a time to mill, based on when the shop is open and working around classes and other people using the machine. Foam is not incredibly aesthetic, and having to glue pieces together adds to the unsightly quality, however I was able to get a nice fairly smooth surface using an 8% over-cut (is that what it’s called..?). Bill said though that the surface could be painted.

other than that, this seems to be a fairly efficient and accurate approach to building a smooth, complex surface.

3D Prototype Models

Here are some preliminary prototypes. The machine is now up and running, and HOPEFULLY will stay that way.

Also, Nate has been questioning his role as an architect and is now considering a career in Handsome Boy Modeling… wdyt

Steel Fab

Well this exploration wasn’t the most successful in terms of finding what works (physically), but establishing limitations can always be insightful.  Heading down to the shop, I found that the thin aluminum sheets (acquirable from the Chronicle) just incinerated.  14 gauge (1/16″) aluminum would take the weld, but you had to move rather quick to avoid melting the material – which proved to be rather difficult (used argon torch I think).  We could move up to 8 gauge (1/8″) and steel, but that would prove to be rather intense depending on the application.

The digital process was more useful.  Using the original file wasn’t working out to my advantage so I manipulated the surface to make it more dynamic.  Converted the surface to a mesh / triangulated mesh for proper level of detail / converted mesh to NURBS /unrolled polysurface.  The final component could then be CNC cut and each piece (hypothetically) welded together and bent as allowed.  This final piece also resembled a flattened globe, but asymmetrical and more complex.

To construct this to scale unfortunately did not work out.  Our laser cutter was not strong enough to even etch the metal to give score lines, so I had to scale down, print out a sheet and trace/cut with that.  The aluminum would not take the solder and super glue proved to be too brittle.  Other than that the conversion from digital to physical should work given the use of steel.

If we wanted to imploy aluminum, we would need to look into riviting.   Additionally, I was not able to explore this process further as my Thursday ended up with a slight, unexpected … detour.

Textile Exploration: Surface Relief

I started out with creating basically 4 types of patterning until I made a larger scaled one using one of the fin pattern that I chose–thinking that at the moment it had the most potential for creating a more variagated relief,, although this first variation was only using the normal width of strips cut with regular spacing. I still need to play more to actually get a relief that would be similar to our base loft surface since right now it more of just a surface. For the next step I thinking I have an idea on how to achieve more of a sense of depth in the relief by playing with strip shape, size, width, and organization/placement of twist.  Any further thoughts?

Wood Construction: formed plywood panels

Here is a possible way to form thin layers of plywood to a curved surface using conventional means.  I constructed it in strips due to the fact that the wood plywood could only curve on one axis, similar to Shandra’s original fabric model.  So to achieve the curve on the second axis I varied the length of the strips themselves as well as the supporting frame to get a “stepping” effect.