Clock Project

Intention

The intention behind this project was to design a clock that I could be proud of and could gift to either a family member or my boyfriend. As such, I looked specifically at designs that I felt would be aligned with their interests and passions. After looking further into different designs, I realized that my favorite ones were those that involved animals in a clever way. I chose to model my clock after this one which I ran across while searching Pinterest for ideas.

Context

As I went about trying to ocme up with an idea for the clock project, I realized that I wanted to design something that wasn't solely circular or geometric. I saw the design for the fishbowl and cat clock on Pinterest and thought it was a really clever incorporation of the clock into a larger object and decided on modeling my project after this. This also seemed perfect to me since my boyfriend loves cats and has a pet cat while I have pet fish. I also looked at the design to see what parts of it I liked and where I thought modifications could me made. As a result, I added more fish and bubbles and removed the clock numbers besides 12, 3, 6, and 9.

Process

I ran through a couple iterations of designs with Fusion360 to see what I thought looked the best. I had some trouble figuring out how to get the layers to properly reflect the cat and the fish without adding so many layers that the physical clock components wouldn't fit. I finally settled on two layers with one being a solid fishbowl and cat and the other layer containing cutouts of the fish and clock numbers. Since the project required using engraving, cutting, and scoring, I also had to take this into account to try and figure out what would look the best while meeting the specifications.

Product

My final design consisted of the aforementioned two layers, with the fish cut out of the second layer. The bubbles were a mix between scoring and cuts and the numbers were cut with the circle inside the 6 and the 9 etched. I also ended up doing a partial scored-outline of some of the fish and bubbles since I thought it looked neat. I was able to create the entire design with Fusion360, using the spline tool to create the cat (although it has a somewhat human looking face). The finished product required a bit of post processing as I chose to glue the cut numbers back in their spots leaving a bit of gap for the underlying black to show through.

Reflection

Overall, I'm very happy with the way this project turned out. I found the initial design process to take the longest as I needed to figure out what I wanted to design and how to go about doing so. In retrospect, I would consider making my project a bit smaller since it's a bit larger than I realized. I also would try to find a way add a third layer to give the fish a different color from the cats.

Collaboration or Attribution

I ran my idea for the design by a couple of my friends who knew my artistic limitations as well as my boyfriends love for cats. Both of my friends thought the idea was cool and they gave input at a few points during the design process about the number of fish and the necessity of all 12 numbers.

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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

About

The goal of this project is to design a clock using Fusion360 and use the rabbit laser machines to laser cut it, therefore demonstrating the ability to safely use these machines and use Fusion360.