Jessica A. Artiles // PROJECT

Fab-in-a-box, a Portable Fabrication Lab - Now with an Oscillating Cutter!

For my Machines that Make class at the Media Lab I designed and machined an oscillating tangential cutter to be compatible with the existing Fabinabox machine. My knife toolhead is an upgrade from the vinyl cutter knife, which is a simple drag and swivel knife, because the oscillating motion allows it to cut through thicker material, such as foam, cardboard, leather, and more maleable plastics. It is spec'ed to do nearly everything a laser cutter can do, without the lasers!

How to Make (almost) Anything is the class that gave birth to Fab Labs, now an international movement for makers worldwide. The course is a bootcamp into fabrication technologies (digital and analog) through weekly projects to master a tool/skill/technology per week. I was one of the very few that bit the bullet and continued to work with Neil Gershenfeld, founder and instructor of the class, in the sequel of the class, How to Make Something that Makes (almost) Anything.

Skills

SolidWorks
Prototyping
Laser Cutting
Parts Sourcing
Machining (CNC Mill and Lathe)
Programming

Select photos

Storyboarding our use case scenario

Demoing Fabinabox for the MIT Girls Day Museum to gain insights on our users' interests

Prototyping a modular Core XY wall structure for the machine design

Integrating prototyping components of the end effector

Editing mounting hub for toolheads

Sketching couplers for rotational and linear motion

Using a collet block for machining a slotted coupler on the CNC mill

An assembled prototype of the Oscillating Knife Cutter

see more projects