Taipei Clock - Justin

Intention

I wanted to create a clock that was not only aesthetically pleasing, but also held meaning to me. I've lived in Taiwan for my entire life, and now that I'm at CMU, I don't get to visit often, so I wanted to create a clock of home.

Context

I was looking on Pinterest and Etsy for inspiration and I stumbled across this clock. 

I liked the idea of putting the skyline into the clock face, as well as the slanted look it had. Also, it's just a cut out piece of wood with no other markings on it, which really appealed to me.

Process

After settling with this idea, I found a stock image online of the Taipei skyline silhouette. 

I wanted to replicate the slanted look of the clock I found on Etsy, so I cut up the image into sections and rearranged them. I also duplicated some buildings and then placed them on opposite ends, since I wanted more buildings in my skyline.

This will form the face of my clock.

Product

Detail what you created. What methods or techniques did you use? What tools and technologies were involved? Include images, code or video.

I outlined my rearranged image on Fusion 360 using the Line and Spline tools.

After that, I sketched a circle for the face of my clock, as well as another shape that will serve to cut out the top of the circle.

The next steps were to extrude the skyline and circle sketches, use the cutout sketch to cut my circle component, and then join the skyline and cut-circle components. These were completed through the Combine tool.

I also wanted a inner trace of the outline, which I would score onto my clock. To do this, I first used the Shell tool to visualize what my inner trace would look like.

Then, to turn this into a .dxf file, I created a new sketch using the surface of the inner trace as a plane. I then extruded that to create a component, and finally projected that component onto a new sketch.

As I was making this clock, classmates came over and asked me "Oh is that New York, or Pittsburgh?" 

Because of this confusion, I also decided to engrave the words "Taipei, Taiwan" onto the clock. However, I didn't want it to interfere with the clean look of the clock, so I decided to engrave this onto the back.

After several test cuts, I finally completed my final product!

Reflection

This clock definitely took a while, since I wanted it to be perfect. I was pushed to think creatively in the Fusion 360 stage, such as how best to rearrange and trace the skyline, and create an inner trace that I would later score. Additionally, I also got to familiarize myself with Fusion 360 as well as the laser cutter.

I'm happy with how it turned out, but I'm not really fond of the shape of the clock hands, so maybe I'll replace it with something else later. I also wanted to put a clear acrylic cover on top of the wood, but I couldn't think of an easy way to do that. If I were to redo this, I would more carefully plan out what I wanted my clock to look like. 

Collaboration or Attribution

The design was completely handled by me, but I received a bunch of help from the instructor when I ran into problems with creating the .dxf file and using the laser cutter. Thank you Louise!