1/5-1/8

Monday

Returning from break was hard but this is the first blog post of 2026! Returning back was a reset for me and I needed to catch up and refresh myself with what projects I needed to work on. The first thing I rechecked was the bins for the machine shop. I decided to pick back up with the tape measures. I started to make a bin for the Stanley 25'. I took pictures and calibrated it on Fusion. Before I imported the image onto the bin, I removed the background with a website so then I'd get a more accurate calibration.

Tuesday

After creating the bin, I used splines to trace around it. I made it go around because I didn't want the tape measure too flushed with the material. It would make it easier to grab the it out of the bin without being too fit into it. After completing the bin, I split it into half or to be smaller just to test on the 3D printer so then I wouldn't need to use a lot of filament for it to not work out well.

Wednesday

I started on another project. i needed to make a gift for a teacher who wrote my recommendation letter for college. I wanted to make them a picture frame with an iconic photo of them seen in their classroom. I wanted to draw the picture in my own free time instead of engrave it because it might not turn out to be clear and recognizable. I wanted it not to be too big so then they could simply put it on a table since their desk is already cluttered with personal items. I had plans to engrave small symbols that they like like dogs. It's a very similar design to what I made for Mr. Christy in my Sophomore year. The middle part will be a clear acrylic and the drawing will lay on a piece of chipboard or paper as background.

Thursday

I finished up the frame and fillet the corners and stands to give it a smooth look to it. I made a separate projection component. I made all the projections and saved them as .dxf files on my computer. I imported each of them onto Inkscape and configured them to be able to be seen as vector lines on the laser-cutter. I added text and images on the top part.