Personal Projects
Deburring Tool Holder
I was working at the machine shop, and noticed that the deburring tool drawer was very crowded. So, I came up with a design that would be made of aluminum sheet metal to hang on the side of the cabinet that would fit the deburring tools. Steps:
1. Measure deburring tools and decide on size and design
2. Made three separate Solidworks drawings, taking into account that the sheet metal size will be different when one bends the material, and using the sheet metal tools in Solidworks
3. Assembling all of the parts in Solidworks
4. First laser cutting cardboard to ensure that the size is correct and that it will fit
5. Revise, and then cut the aluminum sheet metal in the water jet
6. Debur and assemble!
OnShape Portrait
OnShape is arguably one of my favorite parts of what I’ve been learning about. My engineering professor gives me...an assignment to draw?! And then I can put that drawing into a 3D printer or a CNC machine?!
Wild. After I finished my assignments on OnShape, I just had to indulge myself and test out if I could draw a face in the program as well.
I learned:
it is easy to extrude from a surface, but I cannot extrude from thin air, so should plan in advance to layer the extrusions kind of like how a 3D printer does
I did this portrait with a very limited sense of each of the tools on OnShape, so was pleasantly surprised as I've worked more on this that there are shortcuts (learned maybe it's hard because I'm taking the hard way)
Spinning Top
First, I had my drawing of all the dimensions
I found a collet that was big enough to fit my piece and then I practiced putting it in the lathe
I faced off the piece and zeroed the y-axis so I could slowly make the handle of the top. It took a lot of passes to cut down the whole thing
I wanted the nice chamfers on the side of the top, so I had to change the tool and move the tool post at an angle and cut off the edge. This was simple for the first edge.
I now asked myself "How would I get the bottom chamfer on the lathe without hitting the collet?" I didn't want to take the piece out of the collet because then I'd risk having a slightly off center.
After deliberation, I got a thinner cutting tool and moved the tool post to the opposite side and basically cut passes diagonally into the piece until I got the center, and
then the top was off from the origonal piece
I then took out the collet and replaced it with a chuck and put the handle of the top into the chuck and because I wanted a semi-circle as the point for my top, I got a new cutting tool that had a quarter circle cutting edge instead of the straight edge. A trial here was making sure that the tool was at the center of the top, so there was lots of measuring done.
Now, the top was all cut, and all I had to do then was polish and deburr the edges and clean up!
T-nut on the Mill
This was my second project on the mill. Every Thursday morning I go to Engineering Innovation Center at BU with my own projects. I came with a drawing of the T-nut in 3 perspectives sized to a T-nut in the machine.
The first step was to face the acrylic and square out each side so I knew that the square was 1.25 inches on each side. Surprisingly, this was the hardest part. It took me an hour and a half to get a 1.25” cube because I learned that one of the most fundamental parts of engineering is precision and being careful.
Then from that point, I gradually passed through the side cuts and then learned how to make a threaded hole and screw.
What I Learned:
The hardest part wasn’t using the mill, but rather planning what would be the most efficient way of cutting the part. If I did this again, I would be more precise on my steps so then I wouldn't have to correct myself later.
3 Rings
I've gotten compliments on these rings and I proudly tell people that I made them myself! I had the dimension and drawing of the ring, and then I used the wanted more experience on the lathe, so I went to the Engineering Innovation Center with a dimension of a ring. There was a hollow rod of aluminum the size of my fingers, so I conveniently just cut out rings on the machine saw. That was the simple part, then I had to debur and polished the rings, which took much longer than I thought it was. I appreciate metal working more fully now.
Lesson Learned:
There is nothing stopping me from making whatever I want, this was simple and I wanted to make a ring so bam! Got one.
Metal is more difficult to work with than acrylic.