SUTD Mobile Fabrication Lab Visit

The SUTD’s Mobile Fabrication Lab will be visiting VJC from Monday, July 11 to Friday, July 15. Here’s a brief overview of what can be found in the Fab Lab Mobile, and some guides to using the equipment written by our students. There’s also an article from The Victorian Press about the lab.

The SUTD Mobile Fab Lab at the VJC Campus.

The Fab Lab Mobile contains cutting-edge equipment from SUTD: it has three 3D printers, as well as a laser cutter. Although the equipment might seem complicated, the basics are very simple. Just design whatever you’re trying to make with some software, and let the machine do the hard work for you! If that seems interesting to you, check out the following guides to making your first 3D-printed object or laser cutting.

3D Printing Guide

Download Autodesk 123D Design from 123dapp.com
Create your design.
Note: Your design preferably should have a flat base.
Export the file as a .stl file.
File > Export as 3D > stl
Save the file in a thumbdrive, bring it to the Fab Lab, and you’re good to go!

Another view of the 3D Printer making a badge.

There are various tutorials that can be found online on how to use the program. An addon to it includes 123D Catch, which can be used to convert multiple images of an object into a 3D design. 123D Design and 123D Catch are also usable on your phone, and can be found on the App Store or Google Play for quick edits on the go.

Note: there are also various other programs which you can use, as long they enable you to export it in a .stl file format.

Laser Cutting Guide

Step 1: Download a vector graphics editor. CorelDRAW is strongly recommended, but Autodesk 123D Design can be used as well.

Step 2: Using the program, draw the shape you want cut. For example in our case we needed to cut several rectangles of different dimensions, and we drew them as shown below.

Using CorelDRAW to design shapes for the laser cutter.

Note: The laser cutter relies on color to determine the power of the laser. The color black is used for engraving, while the color red is for cutting through the entire material. If you are not sure, do not worry about the colour; just inform the SUTD supervisor which parts you want to cut and which parts you want to engrave.

Step 3: Click on “File”, then “Save As” to save your drawing to a flash drive. Give the flash drive to the SUTD supervisor when you want to start cutting. Make sure to set the file type to .dwg or .dxf. Also remember to take note of the units that your drawing is in and inform the SUTD supervisor. (By default, CorelDRAW uses inches.)

Make sure to save your file as a `.dwg` or `.dxf` file.

Additional Notes:
The material available in the FabLab for laser cutting are 3mm acrylic sheets. In the case your wish is to make a structure which is more than 3mm in thickness, you will need to break up your design in terms of layers, and cut them individually. You will then have to use acrylic glue (can be found from an Arts friend) to stick all the layers together.