My daughter is getting involved with ceramics, and I’m supporting her as she figures her way through the maze of options, tools, and procedures.
She has been scratching her initials in the bottom of her clay work, and I thought she needed a set of marker’s marks. So she scanned in her initials and the year and I made two 3D printed tools, one for her initials and another for the year, to help her make her work a little bit more professional. They’re only 1/2" square so I added handles too.
She’s enjoying working on the wheel, but she asked if I could print her a tool holder from the internet that fits over the curved splash guard. She has some custom tool holders we are designing together to hold flat card-like tools. So there is more to follow…
Finally, she saw someone using a trimming spinner in a video (see below) and asked if I could make something like that. Because I have a number of roller-blade ball bearings (8 mm inside 22 mm outside), I modeled up some spinners in CAD, exported to STL files and 3D printed them.
All to help a maker make! If anyone has the need for things like this, I’d love to chat with you about what you’ve done. I might even 3D print you something!
@aneel I totally agree that resin printers would be best, but even though I’ve taken the resin class, I’ve never had a chance to use them and now months later I’m scared to even try.
Aneel, just a thought - If you add a “texture roller” element to it, that may help thresh out the syllabus.
Essentially, starting at step 2 of your class:
2.1: Turning the SVG into a repeating pattern
3: Create a cylinder w/ hole for dowel of your preferred dimensions within the slicer software (alternatively, fusion360)
4. Use emboss function on slicer software to “project” the SVG onto the cylinder, ensuring correct positioning and size. (alternatively, sheet metal function within fusion)
(We could even add a laser element/demo to the class since getting the SVG is all that’s needed to engrave the same things on the laser using either a sheet of material or a dowel and the rotary tool)
Honestly, it’s better structured as an at-your-own-pace project than as a group class. Some designs take minutes to get from start to finish. Others take a bunch of tweaking or even full redesigns to get it just right. I set up the instructions to use free/ad supported web-based tools (https://photopea.com and https://tinkercad.com), but likely some people would prefer to use tools that they’re familiar with (eg. Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and Fusion or Onshape). I don’t think it makes sense in a class setting to try to cover all of those options.
PS. You can now use Emboss in Solid in Fusion too. No need to jump to Sheet.
I wonder if this could be some sort of new, instructables-like feature we could introduce. Maybe a forum post is the best way, but it could be cool to have a sort of repository of project plans or tutorials somewhere for ASMBLY members to use and share. Could be a wiki category as well, or something like that. just an idea @AJStow
Thanks for the tag! As Nick said, we have a committee planning something very similar, be on the lookout for that! Some ideas have been thrown around about small projects like this that aren’t exactly classes having some category to fit. Something less official than a class, but that we can have accessible for members to come and take part in. I’m interested in making something like that possible, but the less official nature means it would probably need to be taught/lead by volunteers.
Aneel, sorry for reviving the thread. I’d love to read about maker’s marks, and I have some specifics I’ve been struggling with…
If I have a sketch, I can take it to 3D fairly easily. I’ve done this via some really janky photogrammetry methods to make some prototype custom silverware organizers for instance. (I use one line of OpenSCAD to do the extrusion from SVG.)
But I struggle getting to the sketch. Without a full graphic design course, I’d like to better understand making a pleasing design, how different elements communicate different things, and how to make sure the design will work for different mediums - 3D prints, acid etching, or a metal punch for instance. Any advice or resources?
Understanding how to make a pleasing design, and what design elements communicate what is a much bigger question than I’m qualified to answer. This was the textbook for my Design 1 class at ACC: Design Basics David A Lauer Stephen Pentak : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (though this link is to the 8th edition and we used the 9th), and I thought it was a reasonable introduction, but it barely scratches the surface.
Working well in different media is pretty specific to the medium. I’ve learned some things about stamps/maker’s marks for clay, but experimentation is probably the best approach.
In general, my process would be:
Do a survey of what other people have done in the medium (image searches, find books, talk to people, etc.)
Figure out which ones appeal to me
Look more closely at them, what about them appeals?
Liberally steal design elements that I like, modify to suit my needs
Try out various designs, see what actually works and what doesn’t
Select the best that I can do and quietly despair over the impossibility of perfection
