Plywood Christmas Calendar

We had this course called digital modelling and intelligent products and we had an assignment to make a product in which we will need to use programming in some way. So we decided to make as a product a christmas calendar with using laser to make the actual calendar from plywood and then to program a light to the calendar by using microbit. 

Supplies

Plywood sheet, thickness 3mm, width 610mm, height 1220 mm x 3 sheets

Makercase

Inkscape

Rdworks

Laser cutting station

Pyrography pen

Microbit

Led light

Crocodile clip

Step 1:

First you make the divider box using makercase.com, from there you choose the divider box.

Divider box measurements:

Measurements are outside dimensions

Width 400 mm, height 90 mm and depth 400 mm

Divider rows and divider columns 5 x 5

Material thickness 3mm

Step 2:

Make the boxes that go into the divider box, choose basic box.

Basic box measurements:

Measurements are outside dimensions

Width 66 mm, height 66 mm and depth 95 mm

Material thickness 3 mm

Choose open box and finger joints. 

Step 3:

Open InkScape and import your file.

Save it as a ‘’rld’’ -fileform

Open RdWorks and open your file

Set Laser cutting machines speed, power and cut values

Set speed 40, cut 40 and power 25 when using 3mm plywood sheet

Step 4:

Start laser cutting machine

Download file from computer by pressing download on the right corner in Rdworks.

Press ‘’file’’ in Laser machine and choose your file

Set plywood sheet on the cutting surface

Set the starting point and test frame cutting area by pressing ‘’frame’’

After you have framed area press ‘’start’’ and wait cutting to be ready.

Remove plywood sheet

Step 5:

When you have all the small boxes printed, it is good to make the numbers, before putting the boxes together.

Do the numbers using a pyrography pen, and style the numbers as you wish. 

Step 6:

Now you can put the small boxes together by following the instructions from makercase

Use glue to get them stick better together

Also assemble the divider box

Step 7:

Microbit

In Microbit part you need to make your code in Microbit and use it in your calender. You can also use ready codes or our code made by ourselves. Here’s the code:

basic.forever(function () { if (input.lightLevel() < 60) { pins.digitalWritePin(DigitalPin.P0, 0) } else { pins.digitalWritePin(DigitalPin.P0, 1) } })

Step 8: Teachers Instructions

First the teacher will introduce the students, the makercase website, what options are there etc.

Then all the students will make calculations on how much material will they need for their work.

Then the students can test the laser cutter with one small box, so they get acquainted with the makercase, with inkscape, rdworks and the laser cutter.

After that everyone can make their own plan of how they want the numbers in the boxes, you can use the pyrography pen, or the laser cutter as well to engrave the numbers.

Then there will be at least two lessons of how to program the microbit.