In our second year of product design we were asked to design and manufacture a picture frame with digital joints. This meant that the design would not require fastening such as screws, nails or glue for it to fully function. This was a group project and William Bristow co-owns the project.

When making these pieces we used a tolerance of 0.15mm.

 

This was too small and the fit was so tight that the parts barely fitted together and when they were seperated some parts were damaged. 

 

Hence we decided to increase our tolerance to 0.25mm considering the additional paint swelling. We also decided to adjust our design so they had a higher tensile strength.

Unfortunately a part in the router was damaged and needed replacing. The part cost was over £5,000. The machine has not been yet been fixed and our year could not complete the frame project. We were fortunate enough to have machined some pieces before the machine was out of order. The final piece was removed from the assesment criteria. This made the mark for technical drawings and renders larger.