Documentation
For the final project, we made a recycled recycling bin out of Mountain Dew cans. We made it by collecting empty Mountain Dew cans, making brackets to hold the cans together with epoxy glue, 3D printing supports to keep the structure of the bin together and functional, and vinyl cutting a cool design at the bottom of our can. The idea started when we couldn't think of what to make out of recycled products and then it hit us... a recycling can out of recycled cans! It was a double whammy and made for a potentially really cool design. We mapped out our idea, collected the cans, and started making the ultimate recycling bin!
Sketch/Pre-search
Recipe
We started by using Adobe Illustrator to design and scale the brackets using the dimensions of the cans for both the top and bottom brackets. We then went to the laser and cut them out. Then using Inventor, we made a 0.5 by 0.5 by 4.3 inch support to go on the bottom layer of our recycling bin. Next we assembled the bin using our empty cans, supports, and brackets. Last, we made a vinyl using Adobe Illustrator once again and attached it to the bottom of the bin.
Digital Documents
Setting Up Equipment
Working on Project
Final Project
Summary
This was the perfect project to end the semester. It was probably one of the coolest things we could've made and most useful. From making it, I learned how easy it is to make recycled products useful. I also realized how much I've learned from this semester because using the machines was much easier this time around and applying it all together was much easier then I initially expected. Overall this class was really unique with all of the opportunities we were given to learn all of the machines. The recycling bin is a really awesome example of how an "idea" can turn into a reality!