Fabrication 3/20

For today's class we met at the digital fabrication lab in the new engineering building to get a first hand look at some of the equipment we discussed on the 18th. In the room the 3 main pieces of technology were the small mill, the laser cutter, and the 3d printer. My first surprise came when looking at the 3d printer. Instead of having some highly specialized ink, it only required standard HP printer cartridges, given that they are also drained and pumped with a glue like substance. We also looked at the mill and how it was able to cut out the vacuum seal pieces. The last thing we did in class was look at the laser cutter and how to set it up for the project of cutting out our facial profiles. After a little playing around, the instructions were very easy and I cut out my face in 2 passes. It really surprised me that it cut that fast because the laser moved so quickly so I thought it wouldn't have any time to make a cut in the material.