Bottle Opener 3/4

From SolidWorks to Delrin

After the informative and experience filled process of modeling our bottle opener on SolidWorks, we were finally ready to print a 2-D DXF copy on the laser cutter. For this task we selected a 1/8'' thick Delrin sheet and began the process of learning how to use the laser cutter. Or at least that’s what we thought would happen…

When it got down to actually uploading our design to the printing software, Corel could not read our file completely. We thought the lack of some lines in our design was an error in the saving process, but after multiple trials going to and from computers, this did not seem to be the case. Eager to see if the design actually functioned, however, we decided to just print out our model in its most basic state and worry about its aesthetic elements later.

With our design all printed came the moment of truth. Would it work? Did we have to choose another design?  Turns out......

It worked!

 While not the completed design, our bottle opener at least managed to do what it was supposed to.  In testing this model out we were also able to see new ways to improve the design! For one, we knew that the next model we would print would have to be cut from thicker material. This trial model was way too bendy, and we couldn’t help but worry that it would snap somewhere down the line. We also found that the head was a bit too large. In one of our tests, the top edge of the opener slipped over the neck of the bottle and got stuck there. With these things in mind, we went back to solid works to make some changes.

Over the course of the week we worked a lot with Larry, our machinist, sorting out the printing trouble we had on the first day. Thanks to his help we were able to print out our first full model, tentacles and all!

Our work was not done here though. It turns out that we still had a lot of things to lean about what not to do when using the laser cutter.

Trial 1: Bottle Opener/knife

 Starting from this point on, Vicki and I decided to use a 3/16" sheet of Delrin. At first I was confused about where this pointy protrusion had come from, but it turns out Vicki had added it to see if it could aid in the bottle opener’s function.  She thought it could be used to pry open the bottle cap in some way.

The main reason we moved on from this trial, however was because our dimensions were slightly off. Despite making an effort to check the dimensions and measure some of the parameters by hand, we learned that we needed to use SolidWork’s "Measure" function for the design to truly work out .

 Trial 2/3: 

When we printed out this final version of the jellyfish design, our dimensions were finally correct. It was the perfect size for the hand, and it made contact with the bottle cap in all the places it was supposed to. Only… it just would not open the bottle.

We tried filing the straight edge of the opener to make it fit under the cap more easily, but this did not work. Finally, we came to the conclusion that the curve of the head was too narrow for applying force the way we wanted it to. In this case, the action of the bottle opener relied on having a force applied tangent to force of the straight edge lever, and this just wasn’t occurring.

Rather than continue with this design, we decided it was time to move on.