Intro to Fab — Assignment 3

For this project, I wanted to use the laser cutter for the first time, since it was just introduced to us last week. I had the idea of making acrylic cases for sports trading cards last week, but it didn’t really fit the assignment. But, I decided to do it this week!

I started off designing the cases in Illustrator and did so by measuring the size of a training card, a nut, and a bolt.

I made a mistake when making the smaller model, unfortunately. I made the large case in Illustrator and then sized everything down. When doing so, I changed the size of the bolt and nut holes in the design. After making the changes, I decided to put in the acrylic and give it a go.

The design turned out well and I was surprised at how easy the entire process was. Unfortunately, I made another sizing mistake!

While I measured the correct height of the nut from smooth side to smooth side, I did not account for the size different from corner to corner. The difference ended up being .04 inches.

I reprinted, and the print went well! The nuts and screws fit perfectly and created a great casing. On the smaller size case though, the holes were not properly lined up, so I could only get one screw in the case.

After fixing the smaller case’s holes lining up, I reprinted it and they lined up! I then peeled the cover off the acrylic and put in my make-shift playing cards and the final product ended up looking fairly nice!