Maker Space Sign: Zach Frankenberg

This Presentation covers how to make a simple sign with a laser cutter and simple materials.

Supplies for My Maker Space Sign:

-Wood

-Acrylic slabs

-Strong glue

-A wood backing for a frame or mount

- Sandpaper (if needed)

IMPORTANT TOOLS:

- LASER CUTTER TO MAKE PRECISION CUTS

-ACESS TO CANVA OR ANY DESIGN APP

The maker space sign is important to Dr. White and the community because he wants this sign to attract others to room 212. As a teacher Dr. Whites role is to educate others and in the case of our class guide us through the process of learning new technological devices or things. Room 212 has a lot of cool tools and devices that some people at the school don’t even know about. I sure would not have known about the laser cutter if I had not taken this class, but it should not have to be that way. This sign will help to show others what this space is all about. Just because you are not in the computer science class does not mean that you are not allowed to have acess to it because a lot of the devices we use in that class are useful for other classes as well. Making this sign I to keep in mind how it would attract others and grab their attention. But most of all this project is meaningful to me because I enjoy doing this type of craft. The Design of devices, clothes, shoes, and more has always grabbed my attention and I have always felt some sort of passion for it so I figured this would be a way for me to be the designer and not just the one who admires it.

The first step in creating your new sign is finding a font or design of letters that you like. It can be any kind you like just as long as you can convert it into an SVG file. The next thing that you want to to is find the type of material that you want to laser cut the letters out on. In this sign I used plywood but you can really use any type of material that you think is cuttable using a laser cutter. Next you need to upload your svg file. I used the website glowforge since that is the brand of laser cutter I was using.

The next step is to upload your svg file to glowforge so that you can cut out your letters for your sign. The settings I used on the glowforge were 130 speed on full power for the wood. Then select unknown surface and put in the thickness of the material. Once that is done you can now laser cut your letters out. The next thing you need to do is to cut out the acrylic letter backing. For this you edit the svg file so that it is just getting the outline of the letters and not every little detail. From here you can scale the outline size to however big you want to print. On my I increased the outline to about 1/4inch bigger than the size of the wood letters. Now you are ready to print. For the setting I select black medium acrylic on 170 speed and full power.

This is the unfinished Maker Space Sign after it was cut by the glowforge with each letter placed on the corresponding one but not glued together.

Now that everything is cut out you can paint the wood letters in anyway you choose. I chose to spray paint every wood letter with a matt black paint. I did two coats of paint on the letters. Now that that is done you can glue the wood and acrylic letters together. Let that sit over night. Now you are ready to mount the letters on anything you choose. I ened up mounting my letters on to a piece of rectangular wood that was about 2ft and 1.5ft.

This is the finished product. Over all I thought it turned out really good. It was not a hard process but a key thing that I learned was when you are designing a product for someone else communication is key because you want to incorporate their ideas with yours so that when it is all said and done both the designer and customer are satisfied with the final product.