arc 499: February 2009

Panel Mockup

Waterjet Research

Hey guys,
So I did my research, and here is the dealio:
-We can’t laser aluminum, it is too reflective.
-In steel, laser and waterjet are equal in speed.
-Powdercoat (paint) wont stick to a lasercut, but I don’t think that this applies.

I called around, and no one was able to give me a solid estimate without seeing the file. Obviously, the more cuts and the less intricacy, the cheaper. The company that I think that we should work with is the following:

South West Waterjet
http://www.sw-waterjet.com/
srswwj@yahoo.com
11101 Randall Street
Sun Valley, CA 91352
Phone: (818) 573-6463
-Max panel size: 78’x14’
-Can ship design via pdf
-Can make a rough or refined cut, refined takes more time.
-Tolerance: 0.001
-Can email design via pdf, and he will give us a $ for $ estimate
-Open Monday and will send me an estimate over the weekend if I want it.
-Charge between $125-175, sounding like $125, has gone down to $90 (I think I can work that out)
-And I worked my charm, he will give us an educational discount. Actually, he was willing to be very flexible to get the job. Who isn’t in this economy?

The other companies I called were more expensive and less flexible.
http://www.jaymfg.com/
Fernando@jaymfg.com
(800) 660 0529
-Max panel size:50’ x 100’
-$150/hr—Not a solid estimate, must see design
-Tolerance: +/- .010”

Charisma Design Studio
818 252 6611
-$0.25 cents an inch,
-Not willing to give much info without the file
Max panel size: 12x 6

So, as soon as we get a file, I can carry on with the communication and get this party started.

Flockbot

[c]space pavillion

this is dope

Unsmash!

Nevermind, so smash is not as accurate as aligning the C-plane. Yet another lesson learned the hard (but effective!) way.

Smash!

Smash. The command that would have been the much more efficient task to complete the task on my last post (creating 2d ribs). Well, I definitely wont forget it now...

Team A: Lattice Construction

So my team met to figure out our system, work out the details, and make a game plan for Wednesday. I went home to explode our radial ribs and convert them into 2d drawings for laser cut.

The random planes in the image represent the surfaces that I tried to project and orient each rib on. Project skewed the form, and the orient option ultimately disoriented me--never laying flat on the surface created. I continued problem solving, trying various options to get each rib to the degree of 2d precision that I was looking for.

Ultimately, I realized that I could orient the C-Plane to the object rather than orienting the object to the C-plane--and this is the route that I took. However, since each rib would require a different plane, I had to save each rib as its own file and orient the C-plane to each individual rib. I identified the ribs by arbitrary colors to communicate the construction clearly.

I continued to convert the object (rib) into 2d via Rhino command, and then exported each 2d drawing. I scaled the drawing to 1/2"=1'-0", and created a file of the all 6 ribs for laser print.

Ultimately, in order to create six 2d ribs, I had to create six 2d files. It was pretty labor intensive, and makes me wonder if there is a more direct process to complete the same task.