Bottle Opener Day 2: 2/3/2015

Laser Cutter: The Birth of the Jellyfish (Alien?) Bottle Opener 

Olivia had already started our model of the Jellyfish on SolidWorks when I entered the classroom. After various and multiple attempts, confusion, a few Youtube videos, and much trial and error, we managed to have a final, 2-D DXF copy of our Jellyfish. It was a grueling process, since we both didn't have SolidWorks experience, but we are happy that we learned the basics of creating a 2-D sketch and extruding parts of the model. 

The birth of our Jellyfish still didn't go exactly as planned. It was on hold, because when we presented our DXF copy to the computer linked to the laser cutter, Corel could not read our decorations. The main part, the half-oval head, and its body were outlined, but the small curves would not show. We volleyed back and forth between our primary computer and the laser cutter computer for a while, taking the flash drive back and forth as we tried to figure out why the DXF file would not completely portray our Jellyfish. Near the end of class, we decided to just print out our model in its current, basic state. We needed to test whether its primary function as a bottle opener works. 

Today was my first time working with a laser cutter, but wow, it was a process. It was exciting to see the laser cutter in action and to have our first model! Above is a clip of part the cuts, but it definitely wasn't working the way it was supposed to either. Larry, our machinist, asked us if we had multiple lines on top of our drawing stacked up on top of each other, and shook our heads. The laser cutter kept retracing the lines over and over on our existing model, and we had to cancel the order so that it wouldn't just continue cutting on forever and ever... 

Yay! We have a product at last! 

And the best part is...

It works! :) Success!

Except...only temporary. We definitely need improvements! We had cut out our Jellyfish from a 1/8'' thick Delrin sheet, and our piece was too thin. It was heart-wrenching to open the Coca Cola bottle cap above--we took much care to not break the opener (it was bending!) and held it very close to the head in order to apply most of the pressure to force open the bottle cap ourselves. After a couple of more tries, we found it was just generally too difficult push up caps with our opener. The head even slipped over the entire cap and got stuck around the neck a few times! We will be working over the week to improve, or even change the entire design. Even if we get our contact points and the angle to work, we need to rethink whether pulling the bottle cap from underneath with a straight edge would work out well at all.