On August 30th, 2020, the East Cobb Branch of AYLUS went to cut films for face shields at the maker station. Currently the ours and the community’s effort to print shield mask frames has been progressing remarkably and every week, the East Cobb Branch helps assemble hundreds of shield masks at the maker station. However, we are slowly running out of the films used on the shield masks. The films used are thick plastics that are difficult to cut well with a blade, so in order to ensure our shield masks will have no dangerous, sharp points, we are using a laser cutter to cut out the films.
At the maker station, Mike, who had been setting up the laser cutter, helped use the cutter. The cutter uses a series of mirrors to bring a powerful laser onto a single point which is then moved in the path we want to cut. Mike explained to us how we could work out a path for the laser to follow, using simple tools and a shield mask frame. After collecting a few measurements, we drew out the path on Lightburn and rounded out the edges, ensuring that no one would accidentally hurt themselves assembling or using the films. With the path drawn out, we began cutting out films. The first few films were used to test whether our design would work and find what settings would best cut through the film. Eventually, we got to a setting that quickly cut films while not over or under cutting. Unfortunately, the immense heat of the laser vaporizes the plastic, leaving a smoky residue on the cut-out film. This problem is partially solved by cleaning the films with rubbing alcohol, but the films are still slightly worse than those we had previously been using. Should these films be deemed good enough, we will move on to produce more of these in the future.
After several round of testing, finally, we got 35 films ready to install. We could be more efficient when the laser cutter got adjusted well next time.
Attendance: Maxwell Jiang(3 hrs)
Reported by Maxwell Jiang
