Unfortunately, this was our last week in the Fab Lab. This week we put together our embroidery along with our laser cut boxes. When arriving, we were given our cut out box sides. When putting them together, I had to use great force for them to fit together. I was worried I would break the wood, but it was very durable. The etching on my sides turned out very well and extremely detailed! It still amazes me how precise that laser can get.

After putting the box together, we then were given a battery and an LED light. We were instructed to put the tongs of the LED light on the battery and it lit up! We then were instructed on how to construct our LED light circuit on our embroidery. Because I was so far from the board where Duncan was explaining the process, I was very confused at first. However, after asking a couple questions and learning from my peers, I created a circuit. I made sure to have positive going to positive and negative to negative. We learned that if their paths were to cross, we would short circuit the system.

The next part of the process was by far the most difficult for me. We had to thread the LED lights and battery pack into our embroidery. This had to be done with precision and a lot of thought. After I thread the first LED light in and attached it to the battery pack, I realized I had made the #1 mistake of attaching it to the wrong side. I had attached a positive side of the LED light to the negative side of the battery pack. I then had to undue the thread and start from scratch.

After a lot of rethreading and using the wrench to get my needle through, I had finally finished! Here is a picture of one of the sides of my final box!

Overall, working in the Fab Lab gave me great insight on what is available for my group’s final project and also allowed me to get out of my comfort zone of my regular curriculum.