Individual Laser Projects
This station is the hardest out of all. There are three different projects (water bottle, notebook, and 3D object) with the same amount of time given for one item to be made in either of the other stations.
Notebook
I started with some basic sketches in my designer notebook for my notebook covers, bouncing ideas back and forth. I settled with something simpler than my original design. After designing my notebook, I had to work out the fine details in Illustrator. It took two tries for me to complete my notebook, as the thickness wasn't set properly and the laser didn't cut all the way through the matboard. The second try turned out beautifully. All that was left was to bind my notebook and add pages to it.
Waterbottle
Next was the water bottle, like the notebook I designed a few sketches and settled on something different than my original plan. I went to Illustrator, did a little math to figure out the wrap of the water bottle, and completed my design. It didn't take me as long as my notebook. I put the water bottle in the rotary jig and set it up. It ran, and then my water bottle was done.
3D Object
The 3D object was the easiest thing in this rotation as we didn't have to actually design anything. I found a cat "skeleton" and put it into Illustrator, then adjusted the size so the slots would fit the matboard. I sent it to the laser and it cut beautifully. Assembly was a little difficult, but it ended up working out fine.
I learned how to manage my time well because it was a time crunch to get three projects designed and done in four days. I also learned how to resize a whole project because I had to do that for the 3D cat. The slots were too big so I had to change the height so the project shrunk down enough.