James Coleman
Final Project
For my final semester project, I was tasked with reducing, reusing, recycling, or upcycling something that would be thrown away, into something that can still be used. I was required to use three different machines in the Innovation Center in order to get my final project.
Naturally, I wanted to do something with an old skateboard deck. I knew I had a few old ones at home that have been lying around in my garage just waiting to be thrown away. I decided I wanted to make a cruiser deck using a 3D printer for riser plates, the CNC router to cut out my new deck, and the laser to engrave a cool decal on the deck.
Here is what I came up with in my designing stage:
Naturally, I wanted to do something with an old skateboard deck. I knew I had a few old ones at home that have been lying around in my garage just waiting to be thrown away. I decided I wanted to make a cruiser deck using a 3D printer for riser plates, the CNC router to cut out my new deck, and the laser to engrave a cool decal on the deck.
Here is what I came up with in my designing stage:
First I designed my riser plates in Inventor, then printed them out:
Next, I designed my decal in Illustrator. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to actually use the laser.
Then I had to do the most challenging part: designing the deck in Inventor and set up the machine to cut the deck. This was especially difficult because I needed to figure out how to design the deck so that the machine would be able to cut around the different curves of the board.
I put new griptape on and some trucks I had laying around at home:
Final Product:
In this project I learned how to apply skills I learned throughout the semester, to new ideas as I made them become a reality. I learned how to think outside the box and apply I new concept to a neat idea. I had to overcome obstacles I faced, such as setting up the deck for the router to be able to cut. I wish I was able to complete the project with the laser, but overall I still definitely consider this a success.