Beta project(s) eleven - experimental edition

I’m pretty sure @jkopel just meant lines perpendicular to the hinging point in living hinges…

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Okay, how about designing a hinge based on spirals, since they are so flexible? Note, this is not a request, just a thought experiment.

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It’s hard to see in the photo, but it looks like you made a fitted space in the bottom the exact dimensions of the tool, to keep it from shifting. If so, awesome!

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Lots to learn, glad you are experimenting for us.

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Thanks for the post. I’m excited that not all your posts are complete success stories, but a realistic outlook on how the experience with a laser will be. Thank you.

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As always, nice work!
If it’s not too much trouble could you explain how you did the dashed lines in illustrator?

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I can’t imagine how hard that was. I spend a fair amount of time deciphering the difference in the way the Chinese , Red Sail and Epilog lasers all handle the exact same input. Waste way more time than I ought to when making anything. At least I have forums and user groups and YouTube to help. Going it on your own must have been a continuous “will it work today” adventure.

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Congratulations to your wife for the impending degree. Interesting spread of projects, it will be fun to just play around with the possibilities once the GF ships.

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The spirals are of great interest to me as parts of acrylic clocks. Not power springs, but for regulating. Your experiment was a great success. Also liked the box.

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Nice! I really like the spiral!
Now a question, not sure if you are allowed to answer it, or if @dan has to. The chipboard, is it Proofgrade™?

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Way cool! I am wondering whether some kind of Peano Curve (or something like it) could make a good living hinge. There are probably some rules you could give a curve-making algorithm to get something that would work and also look really different.

I’ve done a little playing with scroll-saw spirals, and it seems you need vertical thickness to be seriously greater than ribbon width. This is also a situation where extra axes on the laser head would be useful, because if you could tilt the cut you could make the whole thing self-supporting with just a little glue.

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Well, that’s not how you spell piano - oh….

Haha. I swear I spend half the time I’m on the forum just googling all the things I don’t understand. At least half the time. When it’s a technically, sciency, engineeringy discussion, it’s literally like every other sentence.

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I have tons of new ideas for the spiral. One is a spiral wood or side lit acrylic slinky used as ornaments.

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The material we’re providing Josh is all being considered for Proofgrade inclusion but is in various stages of development. The chipboard is from one vendor but isn’t anything very special (unlike e.g. the 1/4" plywood, which is custom fabricated and has the protective coating).

Oh, and @jkopel, so you don’t have to waste all the hardwood… you basically need plywood or MDF to make a living hinge. We have many splinters in testament to this. :wink: If we didn’t get you any, let us know and we can fix that.

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Nice experiments Josh. Thanks for the time to document. The spiral bowl does have promise. Common as a wooden fruit bowl. Perhaps possible with flipped cut to get a thicker material that is registered well.

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Ya I had thoughts of making these bows as well but typically I see them at 3/4 - 1 and from my under standing we only get 1/2 with flip. Does anyone know because the focus is more than that if we could multi pass and actually get more then 1/4 on one side? Thought is make two or thee passes to get 1/2 flip and do it again? Crumb tray removed with proper standoffs most likely needed

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So glad to see you’re able to experiment and post beta projects again… I missed them.

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It’s great to see these experiments, both successes and failures. Thanks for putting the effort into do them and then reporting on them.

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Or acrylic too :smiley:

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It’s not about avoiding horizontal lines in general, but about avoiding cross-hinge lines in living hinges. You can cut plenty of horizontal lines in other projects.

If you use a cross-hinge line in a living hinge, you’ve basically created another, extended, rigid area in your hinge, and it won’t bend properly. In the OP’s test, as the part was cut horizontally, cross-hinge also runs horizontally.

I’m not the OP, of course, but I have a laser and I’ve cut many living hinges. I do have a Glowforge on order, as well.

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