Folding Photo Frames

Here's a really simple photo frame, that can be made as a gift or for yourself.

Learning stuff.....

It's a project I run with year 7, to learn about the design cycle, as well as teaching CAD skills, via 2D Design. We usually run this over 6 weeks (12 50 minute lessons)

Project Aims

to understand the design cycle, and the way that we can use it
to be able to use 2D Design to create simple design products
to understand the constraints of the laser cutter

Learning Objectives

to understand designing for a client
to understand the effect of constraints
to be able to work to a good quality finish
to understand the limitations and uses of thermoplastics
to be able to critically evaluate design ideas and completed work

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Step 1: Plan out your design

Before we get to this stage in school, we would have done a long analysis of the brief, and discussed who are customers were likely to be, why they would be buying the frames, the purpose and so on.... We're going to skip ahead a stage or 3 here though.... :)

You need to work out how big your design wants to be. We start by looking at just the front of the frame, and then expanding on that to include the other 2 sections - the enclosure for the photo, and the stand.

Ours are constrained by the size of the material each student gets - 90mm wide, by 250mm tall. This has to divide into 3 (2 sections of 90mm and one of 70mm) - 2 sections should be the same size (the frame and the enclosure), and one should be slightly smaller (the stand). We model in paper before jumping onto the computer aided design part, but again, that's all about teaching processes....

Split the 3 sections up, using dashed lines to mark the fold. You'll also need to mark on the gap for the photo, in the middle section. Add in any graphics that you want at this point.

Once this is completed, we print a test copy on paper, to make sure that the designs work, and the measurements are right.