Bright House

I really enjoyed laser cutting this session, so I knew I wanted to do something with laser cutting for my final project. At first, I decided to make a mini version of my childhood house. Since, my house had many different sections, it was very difficult to design the pieces. So, I decided to base my miniature house on my grandma's place in Georgia.

I designed the house in Fusion and Inkscape, laser cut the pieces, painted the pieces, and then assembled them.

Supplies

1. 1/8 in plywood
2. 1/4 in plywood
3. acrylic paint
4. sand paper
5. wood glue

Software

1. Fusion 360
2. Inkscape/Illustrator
3. Makerspace Laser Cutter

I created a simple sketch with minimal details so that I could get the idea of what my main pieces would be. Although my grandma's house was a little complex, the main structure of the house was encapsulated by the design.

I began my fusion design by creating my base portion. I made sure to create a few parameters such as the thickness of the plywood which would be the extruded value of each piece besides the base which was 1/4 in thick. I made sure to design each piece as a different component. Additionally, I only designed one of each piece that would have multiples of such as the window panes and porch rails.

For the walls, I created finger joints so that they could be assembled without any glue. I also designed pieces of the base to be cut out so that the walls and porch pieces could fit in. It was very easy to design the window and door outlines because I would sketch on top of the wall components.

The hardest part of the design was the triangular roof portion. Since it was at an angle, there would have to be some space between the roof parts. I made it as close as possible by using many construction lines and shifting perspectives multiple times.

I designed the scalloped edges by sketching circles and a line, and then I duplicated the circles multiple times to create the pattern. I used a kerf value of 0.2 to make sure that the walls would fit together properly. I used the arrange tool to arrange my 3D design onto a flat surface so that I could export the cut out pieces.

I exported my DXF file into Inkscape where I was able to change a few colors to determine what would be scored instead of cut through. Additionally, I duplicated a few pieces to ensure there were enough window parts. Then, I saved my file as an STL and laser cut my files. The laser cutting portion of this project was very easy, and I was able to laser cut all the pieces in less than 30 minutes.

I went back and forth between whether to go for more natural and realistic colors or to go more fun and whimsical. I eventually set on a blue and pink color palette to make my house more bright. I painted each piece separately before the assembly process. I added some painted details such as patterns on the windows and flowers on the roof.

Lastly, I assembled the house by pressing the walls together and attaching them to the base. I ran into an issue when trying to connect the walls to the base because I painted the entire wall pieces. This caused the wall pieces to become too thick to fit into their slots in the base. So, I had to sand off some of the paint at the bottom of the walls. I learned form this mistake and made sure not to paint the bottom parts of the porch pieces. The details, such as the roof, windows, and scalloped edges, were attached by using glue. Since the base can detach from the house, I was able to tape lights to the inside of the house.

Overall, I was very proud of this design. I love designing in Fusion and being able to see house the pieces will look when assembled. I will definitely be putting this on the shelf in my new apartment!