Fabricating & Designing 2022.
What:
Training and hands-on exploration of the accessible areas of modern manufacturing:
• digital design (CAD + CAM)
• rapid prototyping (3D printing, CNC laser)
• electronics
• metal fabrication (welding)
• machining
• CNC plasma cutting
Where:
TXRX Labs. It's a makerspace and fabrication lab that serves the creative community of Houston, Texas
My thoughts:
This summer, *I* got to be curious again and brush up on my fabricating and design skills and learn modern manufacturing skills. In two weeks' time, I built and fabricated different products and it reminded me of when my knack for making things started.
It was somewhere between choosing wood-shop over home economics in middle school, becoming a stage tech hand in drama club, joining and competing in Tech Students Assoc. in high school or running the campus maker space-fabrication lab with my friends in college that I first noticed what activities my curiosity constantly led me to.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would do it again!
Below are links to Tiktoks I made about the products I fabricated and manufactured.
Digital Design (CAD + CAM)
CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design and is a way to digitally create 2D drawings and 3D models of real-world products before they're ever manufactured.
Industry standard software used: SolidWorks, Adobe Illustrator, Fusion360, Rhino
CAM stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing and is the use of software and computer-controlled machinery to automate a manufacturing process.
Based on that definition, you need three components for a CAM system to function:
☆Software that tells a machine how to make a product by generating toolpaths.
☆Machinery that can turn raw material into a finished product.
☆Post Processing converts toolpaths into a language machines can understand.
Industry standard software and tools used: MasterCAM, CNC laser cutters
Rapid Prototyping (3D printing, CNC laser)
Rapid prototyping is the fast fabrication of a physical part, model or assembly using 3D computer aided design (CAD). The creation of the part, model or assembly is usually completed using 3D printers or laser-cutting and engraving machines.
A 3D printer constructs a three-dimensional object from a CAD model. Material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, with material being added together, typically layer by layer.
A laser cutter and engraver is a piece of computer numerical control (CNC) equipment that uses a focused, high-powered laser beam to mark, cut, or engrave a material to form custom shapes.
Electronics
The branch of physics and technology concerned with the design of circuits using transistors and microchips, and with the behavior and movement of electrons in a semiconductor, conductor, vacuum, or gas.
Metal Fabrication, Machining, and CNC Plasma Cutting
CNC milling is a subtractive manufacturing (when you take a starting object and then remove excess into a desired shape) process that uses machinery to selectively remove material.
Welding is one type of metal fabrication and additive manufacturing (the process of making something from "nothing") where two or more parts are fused together by means of heat, pressure or both forming a join as the parts cool.
CNC plasma cutting refers to the cutting of metals using a computer-controlled plasma torch (more powerful than a normal laser machine). By forcing a gas or compressed air at high speeds through a nozzle, an electric arc is introduced to the gas, and ionized gas or plasma is created, the fourth state of matter....which is used to cut the metal.
