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<h3>Week 8: CNC, Molding, and Casting </h3>
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<h4>Assignment: Make Something With CNC</h4>
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This week, I was dealing with a lot of tiny parts for my final project and needed somewhere to keep them. During the CNC demo, Nathan pulled out a box of end mills. I wasn't so interested in the hardware as I was with the box itself; extremely simple but satisfying and compact.
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I remade the box in Cad and asked for help operating the CNC machine. The wood I chose was pretty terrible, and it seemed to desintegrate as it was being cut.
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To make up for the ugliness, I spent some time on the belt sander to round the endges and clean up the splinters.
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I was also working on my final project and realized the box fit my ESP32 perfectly, so it made a good temporary control box for SpendTheNight Light.
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<h4>Assignment 2: Molding and Casting </h4>
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The primary project this week was my sunglasses. I've been working on these since 3D design week and they are about 75% complete.
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I want these glasses to be made of resin, which is stronger, heavier, and more beautiful than PLA. The first task was to create a mold from my PLA glasses, which on their own took more than 6 drafts and days sitting by the printer. I was unsure how to feel about starting an entirely new form of material.
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Based on the only helpful video on YouTube, I poured flexible resin over top with plans of cutting them out on the other side. The biggest challenge was that PLA floats, so I had to push the frame with this contraption.
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<h3>Glasses a la Molde: A Series</h3>
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<p class="caption">Keeping the frame centered and submerged was a challenge. I probably spent 10 minutes just inching the frames back and forth with the wooden dowel.
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<p class="caption">My plan worked, and a day later, the mold looked good.
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<p class="caption">I built this contraption from cardboard and duct tape to pour the molds for the bands. Pouring was surpirsingly difficult. Like the frames, they float, so it's extremely difficult to keep them submerged and centered on both axes.
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<p class="caption">The first mold was made with purple dye and quick-hardening plastic enamel. Although this material was ultimately too light and flexible, it cured quickly and gave me the approximate volume for the frame. I then ordered resin from amazon and used that for the next attempt with the bands.
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<p class="caption">The first mold was difficult and messy. Kassia gave me the last remaining plastic syringe, which changed the game. Beneath the mess rests a gorgeous frame.
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<p class="caption">As I removed the first mold, I was confident. Then, "SNAP!" I broke a band. You can see the rubber cement holding the lower band together.
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<p class="caption">Crime scene: After breaking the first set (top right), I set about creating a second cast, confident that this would be clean and easy, as I was now a molding expert. As you can see, it was neither easy nor clean.
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To be continued...
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