11. Open Source Hardware¶

From Fibers to Fabric

Fiber Spray Gun by Ali Yerdel & Anastasia Pistofidou

Hacking the ShopBot, by the two previous Amsterdam Nodes.

Block Printing by hacking the CNC / ShopBot¶

Stamping. A traditional craft of the Netherlands

Our roles : Stamp Creation & Design: Flora

Fabric Prep, Mordants, Dyes: Johanna↗ & Amber↗

Hardware: Maddie↗ & Asli

Electronics: Alessia↗ & Irja

Grasshopper code: Flora & Asli

Inspiration¶

Looking at repeating stamp patterns, materials to stamp with and different natural dye techniques.

Images from Pinterest.

Prototyping¶

[to understand what EVA material thickness worked best]

I took inspiration from the shapes and patterns I'd seen and designed four patterns. These were designed with the intention of using their inverted / negatives as additional experiments, resulting in 12 stamp prototypes.

What we learnt :

6mm EVA works best due to it's thickness.
The sponge needs to be topped up with dye and spread evenly between each stamp.
A sponge works best but try and not over saturate it.
Pressure is important with the stamping motion. We increased it a lot from our initial experiments, from 0.01 to 0.5.
The dye needs to be slightly watery so it's not too gloopy.

The Final Design¶

Inspired by 3Ddottedpenguins↗ stamp design, I had the idea of having a stamp that can rotate and slot into eachother to make a more dynamic pattern. This is my process within rhino of experimenting with pattern and layout.

I learnt that the code works through using the coordinates of points within a grid. So it was very important that my design worked within this (see my visualisation below)
I made the stamp double sided to reduce the amount of rotations needed. This would educe complications when it came to the electronic rotations using Arduino.

6mm EVA

Pattern engraved on the wood to ensure I glued the stamp precisely. Making the rotation within the design straight and exact.

Hacking the ShopBot with Grasshopper¶

Working within Grasshopper¶

These diagrams explain how we created the code suitable for the ShopBot within Grasshopper [the btop being the movements of the machine and the bottom being the visualisation of the design, with points on the axis]

THE FIRST SET OF BAKED EXPERIMENTS :
[see printed outcomes below]

Taking it from Grasshopper > ShopBot¶

STEP-BY-STEP.

[once the Shopbot code and design is ready]

Connect the points within the design to the Area and therefore the rest of the code for the Shopbot.

[do this twice if there are different points for rotated designs e.g. pattern5A.sbp was horizontal and pattern5B.sbp was vertical]

BAKE [the correct axis points]
[take note of the setting you used or export high-res image of grasshopper]
Then within large pink, panel, right click and ‘Copy Data Only’
Open TextEdit
Paste…
Format… ‘Make Plain Text’
Save.
[Name] .sbp
Untick ☐ If no extension is provided, use “.txt”.
Save onto USB.

Example Code.¶

'----------------------------------------------------------------
'SHOPBOT ROUTER FILE IN MM
'GENERATED BY PARTWorks
'Minimum extent in X = 0.000 Minimum extent in Y = 0.000 Minimum extent in Z = -0.500
'Maximum extent in X = 830.000 Maximum extent in Y = 1550.000 Maximum extent in Z = 0.000
'Length of material in X = 830.000
'Length of material in Y = 1550.000
'Depth of material in Z = 0.500
'Home Position Information = Bottom Left Corner, Material Surface 
'Home X = 0.000000 Home Y = 0.000000 Home Z = 20.000000
'Rapid clearance gap or Safe Z = 6.000
'UNITS:MM
'
IF %(25)=0 THEN GOTO UNIT_ERROR 'check to see software is set to standard
SA                              'Set program to absolute coordinate mode
CN, 90
'New Path
'Toolpath Name = Profile 1
'Tool Name   = Fabribrush

&PWSafeZ = 6.000
&PWZorigin = Material Surface
&PWMaterial = 0.500
'&ToolName = "Fabribrush"
&Tool =1                    'Jog Z axis to safe height
C9
TR,18000
C6                   'Return tool to home in x and y
PAUSE 2
'
MS,89.6,29.9
JZ,20.000000
J2,0.000000,0.000000
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,181.900044,65.7,20
PAUSE 0
M3,181.900044,65.7,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,181.900044,65.7,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,181.900044,153.3,20
PAUSE 0
M3,181.900044,153.3,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,181.900044,153.3,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,225.700044,21.9,20
PAUSE 0
M3,225.700044,21.9,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,225.700044,21.9,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,225.700044,109.5,20
PAUSE 0
M3,225.700044,109.5,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,225.700044,109.5,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,225.700044,197.1,20
PAUSE 0
M3,225.700044,197.1,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,225.700044,197.1,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,269.500044,65.7,20
PAUSE 0
M3,269.500044,65.7,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,269.500044,65.7,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,269.500044,153.3,20
PAUSE 0
M3,269.500044,153.3,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,269.500044,153.3,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,313.300044,21.9,20
PAUSE 0
M3,313.300044,21.9,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,313.300044,21.9,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,313.300044,109.5,20
PAUSE 0
M3,313.300044,109.5,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,313.300044,109.5,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,313.300044,197.1,20
PAUSE 0
M3,313.300044,197.1,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,313.300044,197.1,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,357.100044,65.7,20
PAUSE 0
M3,357.100044,65.7,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,357.100044,65.7,20
M3,0,0,20
M3,0,0,8
PAUSE 3
M3,0,0,20
M3,357.100044,153.3,20
PAUSE 0
M3,357.100044,153.3,-4
PAUSE 4
M3,357.100044,153.3,20
JZ,20.000000
J2,0.000000,0.000000
'
'Turning router OFF
C7
END
'
'
UNIT_ERROR:
CN, 91                            'Run file explaining unit error
END

PRINTED EXPERIMENTS¶

[without the final 3D printed pieces and rotating Arduino]

Textile laid on top of foam block, felt and then pinned tightly [all taped and secured safely]

Place the dye container securely on the bed too
Make the location of the container the ShopBot Home [take a picture of these axis]

See Ambers↗ documentation for a more precise explanation

Transfer USB to computer for CNC machine and save files to folder within desktop.

Open Shopbot
[make sure that the x, y, z axis are all zeroed and level]
Import the .sbp code
Press start [with your hand on the space bar]
Pause if there are issues or you need time to adjust something.

Between each print we used a knife to smooth the stamping sponge and sometimes add more dye.

[MORDANT PRINTING: final outcome tbc... fabric dying in dye bath]

The Final Outcome¶

Bringing all the elements together.

Voilá

I really enjoyed this week and found it really rewarding. I remember watching Asli at the beginning of the week explaining Grasshopper and navigating it onto the ShopBot and being so confused and overwhelmed. Now at the end of the week, I am navigating it very comfortably and feel like I actually understand it. Similarly with using the laser cutter, I now feel confident using it independently. I am very proud of what we managed to produce as a group.