Arnum and Ailey’s Ircus
Using a Universal VLS 3.60 laser cutter, I was able to fabricate Arnum and Ailey’s Ircus, a home for Umbo. It was a bit of a struggle to figure out the tolerances to achieve a tight fit. I initially ran into an issue where the pieces were all too loose, causing it to just fall apart. I ended up overcorrecting it and made all of the junctions too tight. On my fifth attempt, I managed to achieve the tight fit I was looking for. Because of the way the sides fit into the base, it ended up being pretty difficult to physically assemble after cutting. Thankfully, the birch was strong enough to withstand a little bit of flexing. It’s pretty hard to fabricate objects with holes in the middle of them, since most tools besides drills don’t allow for it, and non-circular holes are even harder to make. This makes laser cutting a great option for objects like my own that need specially shaped holes, as it is able to cut any kind of hole with ease. It’s also great for cutting weirdly shaped lines for things like puzzle pieces.
All of the laser cut pieces that were used in the final assembly.
Sketch of the base piece in SolidWorks
Sketch of the side piece in SolidWorks
Sketch of the top piece in Solid Works
All of the leftover pieces from my previous attempts