Day Three – Prototyping and Refining

After I selected a final design, I imported the image of the seat into Rhino and traced the correct curves after scaling it to the right measurements. Since I was still in the prototyping stage, I decided to do the various parts of the arm rests separately (cup holder, phone holder, and actual armrest).

There are three main parts of my project: the actual armrest itself, the joint, and the cup-holder/phone stand. For the actual armrest itself, I had to make two separate objects and then using Boolean 2 Objects, I was able to shape the armrest. The tracing process, however, was not that simple. It required me to go over many times. The first time I did it the wire frame was not smooth. The second time, it wasn’t symmetrical. It took many creative methods like only drawing half and then copy and pasting the other half to finally get it correct.

For the joint, I went onto thingiverse to download a joint. Since the joint had some problems in terms of the format it was in, I decided to make my own joint from scratch using the downloaded one as a model. I had to do three iterations of the joint design. First, I tried to do it with a perfect sphere, but I felt like there wasn’t enough surface area for the joint to grab on so I scratched that and tried again. Since the problem with the first one was that there wasn’t enough surface area, I decided to elongate the socket on the second try. This time, I realized that the joint would simply not turn, taking away the functionality of the joint. So I scratched that again and just decided to copy the ratio of the downloaded joint and modeled it after that.

 

The final thing that I had to work on were the “add ons.” I decided to work on the phone stand first. What I ended up doing was I connected the stands etc. onto the joint directly to minimize any fragile points. I decided that the ultimate viewing angle was 30 degrees, So I made my design accordingly. In the first project, I felt like my phone stand was a bit too bulky so I decided to make the phone stand on my armrest more slim. This helped with two things: firstly, it’s less weight on the armrest so this will minimize the stress on the joint. Secondly, the sleeker slimmer look just is more pleasant to the eye.

 

After I finished the phone stand, I just moved onto the cup holder. I first started by measuring the widest part of my cup. After figuring that out, I just used extruded the ring and made a simple cylindrical cup holder.

 

Day Two – Ideating and Selecting a Final

With the constraints and general direction in mind, I set out to get the correct dimensions and ideating. There were three measurements that particularly interested me. First, I need the total length of the armrest to see how long I want to make my custom armrest in order for it to fit. Secondly, I need the length of the arc so that I could determine what shape I wanted my armrest so that it would be able to fit without any wobbling. Finally, I wanted to know the with for the same purpose — make sure it fit snugly.

With the measurements in mind, I could finally try to come up with some concepts. As pictured above, those are the ideas that I came up with. Like explored below, I really focused on making sure that it actually made something “closer” to my hand and that it actually saved desk space (otherwise it would just be a waste).

Day One – Brainstorming and Defining Constraints

 

 

When the project was first announced, I instantly made the connection with my armrest. Although this seemed like a simple problem at first, many things like curvature, size, and creative features quickly became challenging and acted like constraints. There are three main limitations to my project right now.

1. The shape of the armrest and how I can make my armrest fit snugly and not have any wobble. Looking at the three pictures above, I now have a general shape and form of how my armrest to fit. Being able to modify the shape to fit it perfectly will definitely be challenging — I not only have to make sure the curvature is the same, but I also have to make sure the length and width are correct as well.
2. Any cool/creative features that would be a helpful addition to the armrest to increase it’ functionality beyond a armrest.
3. How to make it soft – either through foam or flexible filament.

As noted in the second constrain, another problem I was trying to solve was how can I make an armrest have more functionality than just a platform to rest your arm on. To solve this problem, I decided to place a cup holder and phone stand onto the armrest — not only does this add more functionality by placing two important things in near vicinity of my hand, it also allows me to have cups phones next to me without taking up desk space.

Luminary Project

Day Six – Light Bulb Stand and Completion

 

 

To finish off the project, I had to 3D print a stand that my light can go on. The main challenge for this was the shrinking factor of 3D printing — even if the laser cut version of the stand worked, it does not mean that the 3D printed version will actually fit. Through a lot of trial and error and googling the shrinkage factor of PLA filament, I was finally able to create the stand with the right dimensions. I first cut it out with wood, but then I felt like the fit was going to be too loose so I scaled up the whole thing by 0.3 percent and tried again. When I did that, the wood fit was pretty tight, so factoring in the shrinkage, I felt like the size was about right, finally committing to the print. Time was especially important for 3D printing because it took so much time to print. When it came out though, it fit perfectly. Putting it into the lamp, the luminary project was finally complete!

Day Five – Cutting and Assembling

 

 

 

Because the speed was too fast, I one small bit was not fully cut out and I had to go over the cut marks with a knife to fully separate. After that, I used wood glue to glue the vellum to the wooden frame and glued all of the pieces together. I had to use tape to secure the vellum and rubber bands to hold all four pieces together. Overall this process went without any problems and the general shape of the lamp was finally apparent.

Day Four – Iterating and Finalizing

 

 

 

I went and redesigned all of the lines’ thicknesses and made sure that all the lines were able to be safely cut. After that was done, I laser printed the lines. Given previous trials, Mr.Brodie made sure that I slowed down the cutter and increased the power. Even with these adjusted settings, there was still one piece that didn’t cut fully.

Day Three – Presenting, Implementing, and Testing

 

 

After I made an initial prototype with paper, the problem of having lines that are too thin became apparent. Given the thickness of the line, it would have been very likely for the printer to burn the line off. Because of that, I had to go back and change the thickness to something that wouldn’t just get burnt through. This process took a lot of time because the lines intersected so many individual curves, forcing me to almost redo all of the faces. Since the modifications took so much time, I decided to test it out with one face first to see if the thickness even worked, avoiding wasted labor in the event that it did not work. Ultimately, it was a success so I proceeded with the other faces.

Day Two – Prototyping and Refining

In the 2D vector phase, I tried to maintain the similar feeling throughout the four sides of the lamp. There were two main things that were used to create a continuous effect overall. The three lines dividing the lamp horizontally were all at the same level and I tried to make the circles all fit together. Speaking of fitting circles, that was also one of my greatest challenges – if the centers of the circle weren’t on the corner of the frame, I had to use creative methods to make sure the circles lined up.

Day One – Defining Constraints and Ideating

First, I tried to define the boundaries of the project. I first read through the project briefing on the lville design website and then asked myself: “If I wanted a lamp, what kind of feeling did I want it to resonate?” One key thing I was the fact that there had to be some sort of a continuous theme across all four faces of the luminary. With that in mind, set the general requirements for my lamp.

After I defined my constraints, I had to work on a concept for my luminary. Originally, I started with concepts that weren’t limited to the rectangular frame and from that I derived concept for my actual luminary. One thing that inspired my design a lot was the super smash ball in Super Smash Bros Brawl. For some reason, the relationship between the circle and crosses just really resonated with me. Ultimately, I tried to mimic that feeling in my light design – utilizing mostly circles and crosses.

Phone Stand

 

 

 

 

Over the past few classes, I have worked on modeling the stand in rhino and then cutting it out. One big challenge I faced throughout the process was dealing with triangles. Since the finger hinge only applies in 90˚ angles. Given that I’m not using a right triangle, there isn’t a clear cut way to join together the various triangles. In the end, I just decided to place the faces within the triangular outline so that the inconsistencies of the triangle will be generally hidden.

Although my client didn’t really have that much to add in general, I still added some details in this final design blueprint based on his original requests. I added some depth to the foot hole that prevents the phone from slipping and included some sketches that would show me what the stand would look like different angles. When I presented my client the first sketch, the first thing he said was his approval of my sleek design. Therefor, in the detailed sketch, I made sure I carry the “sleekness” through to the final version – a simple minimalist design that has functionality and durability.

My client had three main requirements: 1) It either hat to camouflage or look sleek 2) had to be rotatable and needs access to the volume buttons 3) and will be used to watch videos.

This stand design satisfies all three of those standards. I decided to go with a minimalist design with very few fancy things to distract the eye. At the same time, a phone can be used in basically any rotation while on this stand because there is no requirement for height. In addition to that, since only one side with the phone will have contact with the stand, the volume buttons will also be readily available. The usability for movies is also apparent: the phone will be quite upright, perfect for watching netflix or youtube. As a side note, the triangular shape of the stand also lends it strength, giving it the ability, withstand daily use. Given that it fulfills all the requirements and adds in some extras, I feel like it is a good design for my client.

August 30, 2018