For this project, the aim was to use the laser cutter, slicer, and working with joinery. When creating and working in Rhino, I wanted to stick to a particular theme. Creating three final animal related display figures. One of the figures can be joined to a cupboard for the joinery aspect of the project.
The Figures: The three forms are all head figures of animals: reindeer, rhino, and lion. I was really interested in creating these head figures as a display; my favorite being either the lion or the reindeer. When I first started, it was hard to create such organic shape in rhino without any context to work with. Thankfully, google is vast and it contains many animal had silhouettes. I took the silhouettes from the internet and then BackgroundBitMap it in Rhino. From there, I used InterpCrv to create the outlines of the silhouette figures, PlanarSrf, and ExtrudeSrf to give its solid shape. When creating the animals, I kept in mind that the thickness of the wood is .25 inches. This greatly influenced the thickness/width of each animal head. Lastly, I would add a base and support to the head of the animal to keep it from falling.
Joinery: For the joinery, I wanted to incorporate the joinery with the animal forms, so I decided on one of my favorite animal figure, reindeer. After some thought, I made a second base that would be hollow and a perfect fitting for the animal form base. That way the animal figure can be joined with the base and taken apart for the use of a cup holder. The inside hollow of the base would then have a nice, neat design.
Cutting: To cut the design, I exported my figures to Fusion 360 and then to slicer. Slicer would then make it easier to cut the head figures by making plans that could be exported in PDF. Slicer is a very useful tool. Not only does it slice the figure to create plans but it also lays them out for easy export to the laser cutter. From there, it was up to the BTU lab’s laser cutter. I used .25 inch poplar wood for the head figures. Poplar is a very nice wood making the final design look nice.
Final: Putting it all together now. This got messy and it took some more time than anticipated. One would think that since it was sliced it would be easy to put together, but no. The wood glue made the outside of the figure messy and look weird. Also, when gluing them together, they were not perfectly aligned even with the use of a clamp. Aligning the slices is the most important thing about finishing the project and making it look nice. My final form was not completely flushed with each piece. This resulted in a unbalanced reindeer which can be noticed at a second glance. I am pleased with the outcome of the form. I can definitely use it for display.
Thoughts: Although I am pleased with the outcome and its final form, there are some things I would change. Since it was sliced, the reindeer looks very thick, I could consider making the wood thickness of the reindeer head smaller. Application of glue and placing slices together can be improved, perhaps there are other methods to put the slices together. Finishing the form by sanding and adding some protective coat to the wood. I did sand the form but it did not look so well. Other than my major concerns like placing the slices together better and making the head figure a smaller thickness, I am happy with the outcome.
Fernando Velasco Ramirez 