In March 2024, our des 100 course released a new assignment, Assignment Experiment 1/3. Each fixture design is conceived, iterated, finalized and manufactured through a design process. Laser cutting and 3D printing are used to achieve the final product of each lamp. Make at least two well-analyzed prototypes before trying out the final model. We will act as lighting designers to make a beautiful and designed lighting fixture. We will use AI or Fusion360 as a design tool.

At the beginning, I felt confident because we were going to use Fusion360 as our 3D modeling tool. At the beginning, I heard that I was very happy because I had used it a long time ago so I didn't need to fumble for too long. But soon I found that I didn’t know how to use it at all and needed to search how to use it and how to use this fusion360 from YouTube. It's equivalent to me relearning fusion360 in a very unfamiliar place. Before using fusion360 I Adam gave me some advice. When I don't know what to do before you can look at what you like and what you want to do to be your first model, I started crazy brainstorming what items It can be made into a lamp. I found that there is something that can be made into a lamp that looks very nice and artistic, and that is calla lily.

In the second stage, after I decided to use calla lily, I chose to search for pictures online and draw its basic shape on my iPad to let me better think about how to transform into a lamp later. I first drew it and then used the ideas in my mind to draw how to make this lamp and calla lilly to make this lamp in different forms. Then I drew and played with it.

After I finish the manuscript and draft and brainstorm. I chose to make a small model of my own using some paper first to see if there was anything I needed to change. Then make a small model according to the manuscript.

At this stage I felt that the model I had made might not look that good. But I believe I will use this to improve using 3D models in fusion360. Some unnecessary or redundant things will be deleted.

I started with a cylinder as my starting point (left) I felt this cylinder was too big so I chose not to use that one and next door I created a new smaller one (right). I chose to follow my hand-made model to reproduce this one-to-one. I chose to use a cylinder to make a small wider cylinder, and then I took the time to put the small, thin and tall one in the middle in front of the middle. But I chose to delete the top cover because I didn’t think it looked good. I’ll think about it later. How to add details. Later I discovered that I could pinch shapes from fusion360, so I thought I could choose to try pinching a shape for fun. Later, I discovered that I could shape it into any shape I wanted, so I chose to stand the petals up to have a look and then cut two holes in the back, but I found that they would bulge out if they were ugly.

Later, I felt that I needed to redesign my manuscript, so I simply sketched how I should make it more efficient and faster. That way I'll have more time and ideas and changes when I'm doing it.

Based on the manuscript, use the cylinder as a prototype and then select the shape to fabricate the shell. But I felt that this was a bit crude and too small, so I felt that this was not a very good model, so I chose to modify the model again, use my mind to imagine how I wanted to do it, and then continue to make the second model.

This model is not based on any manuscript or any model. Link into a new model based on your own brain and ideas. I think the design of this model is very good. It has six pillars and a lot of cylinders and the links to the shell. I think it looks very good. I will show these two models to the tutor and give suggestions.

On March 21st, the tutor gave me some advice and he liked both. But my first model is more similar to my idea. No matter whether it is ugly or not good-looking or it is a draft model, it is more similar to my idea. And my second one belongs to another independent entity so these two can only become my prototypes.

In a new modeling session, I redid an enlarged version of the first draft. I felt that this was not a final lamp and it was not the lamp I wanted. So I am quite disappointed with myself. I will redesign a better manuscript and redesign a more relevant lamp.

In this new manuscript, I found the painting suggested by calla lilly, so I only took the main part to paint and redesigned the petals and main body shape. I feel that I am very confident and satisfied with this manuscript. I have evolved from the last manuscript to this one. I am very satisfied with my progress, but because of this, others have started printing and I am still stuck in modeling. Hopefully I can make it by next Friday.

This time the modeling was more difficult. I chose a small part of the cylinder and then used a fabricated model to create my concave petals. In order to create this dimple, I spent a lot of time creating this look throughout the day. But I am very satisfied with the final presentation and it is very similar to calla lilly. I think this kind of lamp is what I want, with a sense of design and similarity. I will add the middle pillar later and hope that the rest will not be that difficult.

In the end I looked for online tutorials to assist me. I found that I could dig the hole from the middle so that my wires could be connected from underneath without having to drill the hole myself. I can also color it myself. From fusion360, I chose to use a material ball to make it milky white and more like calla lilly, so that the similarity will be very high. For the middle pillar, I changed from shelling it to adding a ball to it, so that it is rounded and looks better, more like a flower core. I also used a shader and chose plastic yellow for him.

Then I decided that this would be my final model, and then I saved it as an stl file and put it in the Ultimaker Cura software to wait for printing. But I found that if there are red areas in the standing painting, it means the printing is not good. But I found that he could print if I turned it upside down, so I chose to turn it upside down to let him print better. In addition, it just met the requirement of 72 grams and only took 5 hours, so I am very confident in my own lamp design and satisfied with this design.

Future Improvement And Self Reflection​​​​​​​

What needs to change in the future I feel like I need to improve my time management more. Make good use of your own time and use your time to model and create a mental simulation of your own. What I mean by mental simulation is what I think of in my own mind to model and choose a target to model instead of drawing it imperfectly like my draft. Next time I think I will make my draft more perfect and choose a target to model after I finish drawing the manuscript that I feel is perfect. This will also save a lot of time. In the future, I may focus more on controlling the weight of myself and the model because I found that this time the goal was to submit a model under 70 grams, but I found that I exceeded it by two grams, so if the client limits money in the future workplace The range is 1k but the thing I made is 2k. This is not allowed. It is very likely that I will be fired or my colleagues and customers will not trust me. The reputation of the thing I made will also be affected. There are many future improvements for this model of mine. For example, there needs to be a relatively large space below to place the circuit board so that the lamp can be used without plugging it in. The center of the flower can also be enlarged a little, so that the lights can be placed inside to light up the entire flower instead of only lighting up from the bottom like this one (prediction). I think my lamp is not only a small table lamp, it can also be a chandelier or a large exhibit. I think the meaning of my design is also to make people pay attention to the global environment, reduce pollution and care more about the global environment. If it is a large exhibit, like a statue, and the exhibition is as tall as a building, I think I can turn its petals into green so that people can better understand what it represents. Green represents caring for the environment. , caring for the earth’s environment and so on. So to sum up, this is my reflection and future improvement on my own design.

On April 5th, my 3D printing lamp was finally printed. I also received an email from fablab before this. I need to change my model because it needs to be under 70g. But I didn't change it. I changed the thickness of my 3D wall in the cura 3D printing software. Before I made the changes, the model weighed 74g including supports. After I made changes later, it became a model weight of 64g, excluding supports. And when I got it, I saw a bunch of supports and I knew it would be a big project if I had to remove the supports.

After I removed the support, I connected the light directly from the ground, and then I peeled off the double-sided tape at the back, but the double-sided tape didn't seem to stick, so I used a hot glue gun to fix the LED light, and it was the same. of. Next is the display picture. I feel very beautiful and very happy with my lamp.

add on: I also added a small support stand and didn't take any pictures because I used discarded wooden boards and then used laser cutting to make a small stand so that I feel like my lights won't fall down and my wires can go underneath. Going in, I think such a small bracket is necessary. After cutting it out, I used a hot glue gun to piece it together. (There is a hole of exactly the same size as the 3D model in the middle)