Mass Producible Object - Initial Progress

So far, I have worked on designing the general shape for the laser cuts and a potential design for engraving. I want to start off with a test piece made up of only cuts lines before I proceed with the laser engraving. I considered retrying the living hinge for this project, but I feel as though a tie will be too narrow of a design to truly utilize it. (Additionally, I would have to find a piece of wood that is long enough which may be an issue if I buy square sheets of wood.) By cutting them into segments, it means I can rearrange them to whatever fits best to whatever size wood sheets I'll use. (This is particularly important because the sheets sold for the laser cutter are only available up to 12 inches long.)

I figured that a good length would be between 18-20 inches in total, including the "knot". (This measurement is based roughly on the distance between my shirt collar and my belt line.) For the segments, I spaced them out 1 inch apart. In terms of material, I am considering using the birch plywood for engraving and the alder solid wood for a plain design (both from the bookstore.) Alder is twice as thick (5mm thick) as the birch plywood (2.5mm). I also have some leftover 1/4in plywood from my first project's prototyping that I could use to prototype for this project too.

For the back part of the tie, I've bought a couple of bolo tie clasps and some string. I originally bought 2mm cord but realized once it arrived that it was too thin for the clasp to grip. Before buying a different size, I tried using my shoelaces and found it worked better, which I'll go with instead. (When I went to order them I also noticed that they come in multipacks and are already cut to certain lengths so I don't need to worry about fraying.) To attach this, I'm going to glue the mechanism onto the back of the "knot". (I also have small screws but I am not positive on how well it will grip into such thin wood)

For a design, I've been focusing mainly on a drawing of two different hockey players. The top player is Connor McDavid and the bottom one is Leon Draisaitl, both players on the Edmonton Oilers. (This one is intended to be a gift for my dad, who has been an Oilers fan for longer than I've been alive). I also want to put the logo on the knot part of the tie. I'll have to do a test cut to see how fine detail I can go into for the size.

To transfer the design from digital drawing to curves, I'm using the vectorize command. I found that if I wanted to make two different levels of engraving, I had to export my images in the layers I wanted. I am currently thinking about how much depth to add with the engravings. Ideally, I'd like to make two distinct tones but this may require some testing. 


After, I'll want to work on another design between now and the end of the semester, but I've wanted to get at least one complex design out of the way. My next step is testing this, probably on scraps first before I fully commit to engraving on the tie.

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