When: 7 June 2019, 1pm
Members present: All
And our hoop was fully printed! We cut out a circular styrofoam bed from the styrofoam from the 3D printer packaging, that fits snugly within the hoop. This allows the needle to safely stab downward through our cloth.
… However, we faced some issues with Hoop Mk I:
- The thickness was too thin, and it felt fragile/flimsy.
- the outer diameter was too long; the outer wooden embroidery hop could barely fit over the hoop without fabric. The moment we added the felt cloth, it became impossible to clip together.
Claudia redid the model, with different dimensions:
| Inner Diameter | 191 mm |
| Outer Diameter | 201.8 mm |
| Thickness | 5.203 mm |
Before we could print Hoop Mk II, we had to first recalibrate the printer bed height and refill the plastic filament. This took a while of troubleshooting. We sent it for printing — it’s gonna take more than 8 hours.
… Except we stopped printing it halfway. We decided that instead of printing the hoop and the flat base separately, we can print them together instead for extra stability, now that we have confirmed that Hoop Mk I turned out fine. Claudia modelled this, and we used one of the larger printers at the back for printing; this time, it would take 13 hours. The extra 5 hours would be for printing the flat base plate.
In the meantime, we did more research on motors and made some purchases. We realised we needed a shaft coupler to connect the stepper motor to the drill as well. Instead of buying the piece online, we found an available online 3D model that we could print. It was a pretty fast job (37 minutes).
It was able to fit well onto the motor!
Next week, each of us already have our own individual commitments, and it seemed unlikely that we would be able to devote as much time on M&T in the Lab as we have done the past week. Luckily, we couldn’t do much now anyway since we’re waiting on our delivery of parts that are essential to progress. We plan to meet again next Monday for a few hours to check on the base hoop and how it fit. Nonetheless, we’ve madeΒ a lot of progress over the past 8 days, and I think it’s something to be proud of ! π
Ozone!
Since our own 3D Printer wasn’t in use…
We now have a new friend π