Working through the digital fabrication process has proven to be a challenge for our group. As we developed the design, we made three separate attempts (up until the RPC deadline) to account for material thickness within the laser cutting pattern, each time without success. Our first attempt involved printing the unfolded units as a whole, as seen below.
This configuration proved to be too difficult to assemble, as the triangular pieces were in the way as we tried to glue the quadrilaterals to the hexagon. Additionally, the holes in the middle of the hexagons were too small to allow the triangular pieces to attach comfortably.
To try and remedy this situation, we decided to reprint the triangular pieces together, separate from the quadrilaterals and the base. We also adjusted the size of each piece to try and account for the material thickness. This attempt was more successful than the first, but the units still did not fit well together.
We only had time for one more attempt at making adjustments for material thicknesses, so we maintained the same process of printing the quadrilaterals and hexagons together with the triangles separately for convenience of assembly, but we tried to adjust the score marks and lengths of the pieces one final time with the hope of creating a unit that would fit together well. Unfortunately, we were still left with poorly fitting units as our adjustments were not completely correct.
One final problem we were having was keeping the correct orientation of all of the pieces after we decided to cut the triangles separate from the rest of the units. As can be seen in above images, we tried to employ a numbering system that was scored onto the pieces in locations that would later be covered up by another unit or a piece of felt, but even with this system, we still struggled with the assembly. The system worked well for knowing which pieces went together, but it did not help us with what orientation we should attach the pieces. The felt pieces and interior triangular pieces had a more in-depth system (1.1, 1.2, etc) and we should have employed that system on the hexagonal base pieces to best be able to assemble the units. Overall, we learned a lot from this experience because we were unsuccessful. The issues we faced with material thickness and the amount of material that can actually be folded together from one piece forced us to think in new ways that would have otherwise been impossible had we only viewed our design within the computer. It provided us with an opportunity to troubleshoot these fabrication considerations which will help us in the future to make more thoughtful design and fabrication attempts. Although our project did not turn out as we had hoped in the end, we are confident that with another attempt we could solve the problems we encountered and end up with a well-fitting unit. Below is our new board which indicates the changes in the fabrication process from one continuous cardboard piece into two smaller ones.
Nora Begin, Emmy Jensen, Katie Honneywell, Lydia Witte
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