Project 1: Clock

Intention

For this project I wanted to create a simple looking clock to put up in my bedroom. Because I do not normally look at a clock for time, the clock that I make would be purely for decoration.

Context

Currently the wall on my bedroom is just a white wall. There is nothing on it so I wanted the clock to be simple in design so that it fits in with the blank wall. I drew inspiration from snowflakes as I always found their structure fascinating. I gave the clock some lines to give it a bit of depth. Finally, since the wall is white, I decided that black acrylic would go well as the material for a bit of contrast with the blank wall.

Process

I started the process of making this clock with sketches. I had multiple ideas at first but I ultimately narrowed it down to a snowflake design. Then I began to sketch the product in Fusion360. I made half of an arm of the snowflake and then reflected it to create an entire arm. Then I copied the arm 8 times and rotated each arm to the desired position. I joined the arms using lines to create the body of the clock. Then I measured the size of the hole I needed for the clock kit and sketched that in Fusion360. Finally, I created 2 octagons on the main body of the snowflake as decorations. I exported the file as dxf and then laser cut it.

Product

Overall, the final product turned out pretty well. The clock is a bit on the smaller side but the gray created by the etching worked to the benefit of the design of the clock.

Reflection

When creating the sketch for this file, Fusion360 struggled to keep up with all the restraints as I copied and pasted the arms of the snowflake. It would be interesting to see different ways to create the clock while not causing the CAD software to crash. Another thing that could be better is the clock kit hands. The overall size of the clock I cut was relatively small compared to the size of the clock hands. A smaller clock kit would have definitely benefited the style of the clock face more.

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Found In

2017 A1 - Project 1 - Lasers

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Digital Tooling (DigiTool) provides a platform for any CMU student to learn Digital Fabrication processes; all of which are very hands-on. Like these processes, this class is also very hands-on. I...more