When: 3 June 2019, 1.30pm to 4.30pm
Members present: All
Today we met up in SPMS to discuss a number of different things on our agenda!
Softwares & Type of Sewing
We discussed our findings from the weekend. We found many different types of software online, both for embroidery and felting. Some of them were open-source and free, others required hefty payments (which we wanted to avoid as far as possible). From the software available online, we decided to focus on 2D embroidery due to the abundant resources available. We also found that many needle-felting software and machinery available online were very expensive ($2,000 to $9,000!?).
Punch Needle Rotation
We also realised that we may have to include an additional control mechanism of rotation. For 2D embroidery, we would have to use a punch needle rather than a normal needle. The way how a punch needle works is one just needs to βpunchβ the threaded needle through the cloth and move it up vertically to make a stitch. But our weekend research revealed that one has to rotate the needle in relation to the direction we would like to embroider in. This is in addition to the x, y, and z-directions we would already need to reprogramme the movement of the 3D printer in. This is another important consideration for the mechanism behind our project!
Hexagon ‘Print’ Test
We decided to see for ourselves how a 3D printer moves by drafting out a 1mm thick hexagon shape on Autodesk Fusion360 and running it on our 3D printer we had built just a few days ago. We altered the speed of the axes movements as well as the temperature settings (The nozzle and bed do not need to be heated up to such high temperatures since we will not be heating plastic in our project).
Moving On…
Given the nature of how a punch needle works, we would require the x and y direction to move intermittently. Taking the plane of the cloth as 0 units in the z-direction, the needle should move as described:
- Needle moves vertically downwards (z) to -1.5 cm.
- Needle moves vertically upwards (z) to 0.5 cm.
- Needle moves to the right (x) about 0.5 cm.
- Repeat from step 1 until design is completed.
The continuous movement of the x and y direction of the unmodified 3D Printer set-up would not be suitable. The bed should not move at all while the needle is in the ‘down’ position through the cloth. One solution would be for the x and y movement to run extremely slowly (without pausing) to allow the needle time to punch up and down with minimal x and y movement. However, there is still a risk of ripped fabric.
Carissa sketched and noted some possible design specifications…
Meanwhile, we also downloaded and tried different embroidery programmes. Tony suggested we can simply use SolidWorks or Fusion360 for this project, rather than the online programmes. We found a programme, dxf2gcode, which could aid in converting DXF files into a GCode that can be run instantly by the 3D Printer. These worked, but we are still discussing which would be the most effective in accomplishing our project goals.
To make further progress, we concluded that we needed to buy the punch needle that we would like to use, and try it for ourselves to understand what exactly we need to build and programme. So we ended our meeting in SPMS, and traveled to Spotlight @ Westgate to make purchases for our project.
Purchases Made:
- Punch needle set
- Round embroidery hoop, 20cm
- 3 sets of different coloured floss
- Aida cloth
(These will be documented properly in our Expenses excel sheet π )
We decided to meet again tomorrow at SPMS, 12.30pm, to discuss how to progress on from here.