Final Project – Organization in the Air

Artist Statement:

On the first iteration of this levitating desk organizer project, our goals were to have something that was useful and have our ‘connection’ surrounded by magnets. We liked the turn out for the project, but we knew that there was room to grow with this. Keeping the goals the same as before, with the addition of making the levitation more apparent and sleekness, we were going to make this grow. We feel that it was the change that we need with our project to get the appeal that it needs. In the design, we made room for it to be more customizable with shelves being able to put on both sides of the desk organizer. More room to store, and more opportunity. We have a template shelf that you are able to build upon or we have set shelves that are able to be organized to your liking. Once again, the process of producing our design was an interesting exercise in exploring both how this would work from a technical standpoint, and how to work on such an item collaboratively. We learned a number of valuable lessons over the course of the project trying to make this work. We are extremely satisfied with the final product. It met everything that we wanted and with the feedback received, it was a great improvement.

Process:

In constructing the model again, we wanted to come up with a different layout for the magnets to have more stability on each shelf. In the first iteration, we put the magnets around the guide posts. This time we laid it out like this:

When more weight is put onto the shelf, it is more evenly balanced so it is not tipping to one side or the other.

We split the work up again. The shelves that I worked on, focused on making space to put items, large and small. This shelf shows room for envelopes and small objects like paper clips, pushpins, sticky notes, etc.

Another design incorporates a 3 cup design that holds the small items once again. I also made another strip to put at the top of the organizer to hold pens, pencils, and markers. All of the designs were created using rectangles, circles, and the fillet corners command to get the rounded edges. In the end, I used boolean union to combine all the polysurfaces to get each self.

As for Lionel, he made the base and a shelf for the organizer. We decided to offset the shelf to give the user more room to grab the items that they are putting in the organizer. We also wanted to put a drawer in so that the side that is offset was not just a big block. Here is that design:

His shelf, left room so that items were easily accessible for the user. This was designed in 3 sections as well. Here is that design:

Our final product:

Here is a link to Lionel’s Work

Full Project Slideshow:

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Assignment 10- 1st Iteration of Final

Since the last model of the levitating desk organizer, Lionel and I decided we wanted to put more emphasis around the levitation part of the design. The what that we had thought we could get this across was by moving the placement posts toward the back of the design.

It really helps show that levitation because there are any posts in the front. A definite difference from our previous design.

Moving forward we plan to stagger shelves and make the base longer to aid in that. The addition of a magnet in the middle of the shelves. This will help with keeping the shelves sturdy. We definitely are excited to finish the model and getting to that final product that we want.

Project 3 – Levitating Desk Organizer

Working on this collaborative project with Lionel was definitely one for the record books. We decided to create a levitating desk organizer. It was something that we felt was useful and allowed us to use magnetic repulsion in the design.

With our first test to see if our levitation would work, we just made a simple base and a model self to show. It was successful in levitating and at holding things on top of the shelf, so we knew this was possible.

After the first test, we knew that our main focus was getting the design finished as soon as possible so we can start printing the final product. Lionel worked on the first shelf and I worked on the top shelf. The bottom shelf has three cups to place things in. Allowing the user to organize there items that way. The top shelf had three cups, and 6 posts. These were designed to hold pens, pencils, and markers. Markers would go in the larger cups and the pens and pencils in the smaller posts. This was designed to go with the guides that stick out of the top, so that the guides just looked like a pencil sticking up.

Some difficulties we ran into were with printing and with the magnets. With the printing, the temperature had dropped in the room so the filament wasn’t sticking properly. Once the right temperature was set, the prints we able to be made. With the magnets, we tried to heat set the magnets in the plastic but did not know that magnets lose their magnetic field when heated past a certain point. So we had to get new magnets. Once the hiccups were fixed the shelf was great!

Overall, I think that the project went well. We did have some minor hiccups but that is okay. Our teamwork worked out well, and it was great that we both got something out of this project. We learned from the project and we know that we can make this become something better and that much more unique. It is something that the both of us know we are able to push further. We want to continue fixing everything and get this looking like a final product.

Lionel’s Blog

Artist Statement

Presentation

 

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Assignment 9 – Basketball Movement

 

In this assignment, I tried to get the movement of a basketball being passed, bouncing, and rolling. It was a simple process. I started off by outlining my path for the bounces.

 After that, I made a sphere 3x smaller than a regular basketball, just to mimic the ball. I found a basketball picture online and put that as the material. I put a floor beneath the path of the ball and put the material as floorboard. It came out looking pretty good. My inspiration came from thinking about the new season in the NBA. The design does look like some kind of earth worm but when broken down, you know it’s a basketball.

 

 

 

Assignment 8 – Collection

This is my collection of game pieces that were influenced by chess pieces in slightest way. My first game piece that I designed was the second from the left. That was meant to act as a pawn because it was the shortest piece and didn’t have a point to it. In my mind the height and point at the top is what made the pieces “more important” in the game. My next piece I made was the far right one, the watch tower. Meant to mimic the rook, this keeps that same kind of look. The next piece was the queen which has different detail to it but keeps that point on top to know of its importance and power in the game. And then the king, which from the side looks like a crown in a way. During this process, my main objective was to really put to use the boolean difference in Rhino. On the queen and tower the boolean difference worked from both sides but on the king and pawn it only worked on one side. The king was supposed to be a single point but when the difference wouldn’t work I thought for putting holes to make it look both like a crown and a piece of castle. The process was simple but it was good that I ran into some difficultly because now I know how to get through the struggle of things not always working the way I want and improvising.

Assignment 7 -Basic Connection

With dealing with a connection, I wanted to think simple, so that is why I made a simple dowel in hole connection. The thing that I had made is a small container. Something that can hold pills or breath mints. The design is simple and the steps I took weren’t long at all. I made a rounded square, extruded curves, and repeated. I also used a boolean difference to punch a hole into the blocks. This is a great stepping stone for the upcoming project.

Project 3 Inspiration

So when Lionel and I met to discuss what we would like to make this go around, the first thing that came to mind for goals is to create something useful. But that isn’t really the direction that I started thinking about. I started thinking in the realm of being a little unique because I thought that the floating skull idea was awesome. I did think of some other ideas that weren’t as thrilling, like a set of modular drawers. After we met and talked about ideas, we were on the same page about doing something that required magnets and allowing the objects to float. That is when Lionel brought up the idea of making a levitating desktop organizer which we can have different levels floating in mid air. We were pretty sure that we wanted to go more in this direction because it hit our three goals of being useful, having magnets as a connection, and being unique.

 

Project 2 – Skull Pencil Holder

A Useful Way to Express the Halloween Spirit

The idea that I had behind this project was to have something that was small and able to be put on a desk space. Whether it be a lamp, a figurine, or something useful and organizational. I first started at taking a stab at creating a lamp/lampshade of airplanes and spacecrafts for a desk but figuring out the orientation of the airplanes and spacecrafts and my connections lacked. That is when I cleared the drawing board and thought of something Halloween themed but still keeping the constraint of staying on the desk. That’s when I thought of a skull pencil holder. I recreated a design and put together the skull. I used cardboard to keep the project the least costly while still keeping the wood color. It’s useful for cheap and easy on time. Keeps my pens, pencils, markers, and highlighters organized at my desk space. Have the Halloween Spirit at your desk whether it be at home or at work.

I first started with this design by tracing it out in Illustrator to get the basic curves down. From there I moved the file over into Rhino and made two sets of all the cut outs. I prepped one for the laser cutter with the lines being changed to pure red and a hairline width so the laser will cut through it all the way. The other set was used to be made into a 3D model. I extruded the curves, put planar surfaces on the extrusions, and joined them to create the skull just as I would with the physical object. The rendering in Rhino made the design look clean and presentable. When it was time to laser cut, the process was quick and I cut two versions of the cardboard cutouts. First one was to put together and test the object out and the next one was more a final product. The cardboard fit together well and all of the joints worked out well. The slits used as joints worked out well because there were enough connection on each piece that the whole object stood together with no adhesive.

Here are some pictures of the process:

Assignment 4 – Laser Cut Stencil

It was nice getting acquainted with the laser cutter and how it works. Plus it was a good opportunity to make a wooden stencil of a song title that I have recently liked. I used the file that I made in Assignment 3 where I learned how to prep a file for laser cutting. I learned about how the laser cutter works, even learning why flare ups happen. It was a good experience is seeing that it is easy to use the laser cutter here in the BTU Lab. The laser cut quick and I was in an out of there in 20 minutes with a cut like this. I know in the future that I will have to plan for longer amounts of time.

Here is the laser cutting process:

 

Final Product:

Assignment 5 – 2D Joinery

This assignment was a fun way to get to know someone different in class and get another chance to work with the laser cutter. I had the pleasure of working with David. We had a good time thinking of the way we are going to join a couple of pieces together. At first, we were overthinking the design at first. The first idea would have required a CNC machine to create. So that is when we came up with the unique “zig-zag” pattern and the circle with arrows.

 

It was fascinating to use the laser cutter, and with simple cuts such as these, it was a quick process. We were definitely satisfied with the project and enjoyed working with the laser cutter. One thing that we thought of to keep in mind though is to really get the thickness measurement precise because on a cut the laser didn’t quite go through all of the wood.