Door Handle Fabrication: Building Handshake (Jacky Jia & Alexandra Wang)

BUILDING HANDSHAKE Final Documentation

Jacky Jia Alexandra Wang

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Handle 0 - Concept Development Initial Ideas

Key Concepts: 1. Using our Upham’s Corner Library as the project of which the door handles are designed for.

• Exterior door made of glass, and interior door made of wood/glass.

• Public building which means the door is to be operated by both childen and adults. We might need to design different ways to interact with the handle for different demographics.

2. Using postive and negative space to create a formal relationship between the interior and exterior handle.

• The interior handle (negative space) nest within the exterior handle (postive space).

3. Thinking about the materiality of the handle and possibly hybridizing wood and 3D print.

• Thinking about possible connections between wood and 3D print and incorporating joinery as a key part of the design.

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HANDLE 0 CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

CONTEXT

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INVITATION EXTERIOR

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INTERIOR

INSPIRATION

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ERGONOMICS

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CUSTOMIZATION

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Handle 1 - Design Development Formal Explorations Using Foam

Design Concepts: 1. Trying to explore the idea of postive and negative relationship between the two handles by cutting them out of one piece of foam.

2. Rounding out the corners through sanding to increase the ergonomics of the handle.

3. Preserve at least one flat edge where the handle connects to the door.

Design Reflection: 1. We started the process with a great deal of uncertainity but were very surprised by the formal result we achieved in the second handle.

• We especially enjoyed the form of the interior handle from the second iteration.

2. We are attempting to mantaing a similar shape with a more tapered fit as the handle part of the exterior door handle felt a little to thick to comfortably grab onto.

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HANDLE 1 ANALOG PROTOTYPE

Exterior Handle 1

Interior Handle 1

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Exterior Handle 2

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Interior Handle 2

Handle 2 - Design Development Iteration From Analog Prototype

HANDLE 2 3D PRINTED PROTOTYPE

Design Concepts: 1. Maintaining the form we arrived at from analog prototying while making minor changes that would emprove the ergonomics of the handle.

• Tapering the handle so that is is narrower at the bottom and thicker at the top to allow both childen and adult to grab comfortably.

• Filleting the inner edges where the hand grab on top similar to how we sanded the foam handle.

2. Due to the size limation of the 3D printer, the handles are split into printable pieces that can be attached together.

Design Reflection: 1. The exterior handle is still too thick at the top to be grabbed onto comfortably.

2. The exterior handle felt too massive and wastes a considerable amount of material as the back piece is non-functional.

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Initial Sketch

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Design & Assembly Process Diagram

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3D Printed Door Handles

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Sketches

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Handle 3 - Design Development Changes since 3D printed prototype

Design Concepts: 1. Maintain the idea of positive + negative space: • Each corresponds to the exterior and interior handle.

2. Redsign both handle forms to reduce material waste: • Removing a section of the exterior handle where it is attached to the door, giving more material to the interior handle.

3. Ergonomic design adjustments: • Through previous 3D printed models, we exaggerated curved edge geometry and carvedin grip on the area with hand contact to create a more comfortable grip.

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HANDLE 3 MILLED PROTOTYPE

Design Diagram

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Handle 3 - Post Milling Reflection Fixing Mistakes & Moving Forward

Draft 1 process: 1. CNC file set-up and material (woodshop scrap plywood) lamination.

2. Rehoming/Zeroing issue: • Material is rotated 180 degrees before top roughing, resulting in top roughing being CNC-ed at the bottom of the stock.

3. Tightening material on the machine: • During bottom roughing, the material rotated on the axis, causing inaccurate milling on one side of the material and cracking on the material attached to one of the axis points.

• 4. Possible finishing path set-up issue or CNC machining software issue: • We were unable to start the finishing process, as there were a lot of Z- in the Gcode. When we tried to open the file on the CNC computer, the preview looked incorrect, so we did not continue.

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HANDLE 3 MILLED PROTOTYPE

Milling Process Draft 1

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Handle 3.5 - Design Development Second Attempt At 4-Axis Milling

HANDLE 3.5 - MILLED PROTOTYPE

Draft 2 process: • Changed the finishing from 4-axis parallel finishing to 3-axis parallel finishing on both side of the stock (flip milling on 4-axis).

Draft 2 adjustments: • The result on the two sides are slightly offset.

• Need to make sure the stock is perfectly squared and centered on the 4-axis mill.

• Tighten the stock to the 4-axis mill after each operation to make sure the stock does not shift during the milling process.

• Finishing is too rough and required heavy post processing.

• Reduce the step over distance for the finishing operations.

• Set up finishing operation at 90 degree, maybe even 45 degree increments, instead of 180 degree.

• The grooves are too shallow which affects the ergonomics of the handle.

• Remodel the handle using subD to increase the depth of the groove.

• 3D print prototype to test out ergonomics.

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Draft 2 Tool Path Horizontal Roughing, Top

Draft 2 Tool Path Parallel Finishing, Top

Draft 2 Tool Path Horizontal Roughing, Bot

Draft 2 Tool Path Parallel Finishing, Bot

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Milling Process Draft 2

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Milled Prototype Draft 2 Tactility

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Handle 4 - Design Development 3D Printed Prototype & Mold Making

Exterior handle design adjustments: 1. Formal adjustment: • To correspond with the interior handle, we created a grooved area on both sides of the exterior handle, which echoes the grooved grip on the interior handle through sub-D operation.

• This adjustment would also save material on the thickest area of the exterior handle when we later cast the handle out of plaster.

2. 3D print ergonomic takeaways: • Through the 3D-printed prototype, we realized the upper-end edge of the handle became more sharpe to the touch due to the newly added groove. Therefore, we are considering adjusting or smoothening the indent more to make it more ergonomic.

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HANDLE 4 3D PRINTED PROTOTYPE

3D Printed Exterior Handle

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Hand Placement

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Exterior Handle 2 Part Mold Rhino Model

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Handle 5 - Design Development Two Part Mold File Set-up and Preparation

HANDLE 5 CASTED EXTERIOR HANDLE

1. Tool Path: • Setting up the tool path was quite straightforward, mainly using horizontal roughing and finishing similar to milling a topo model.

• Pocketing was used after the roughing process to precisely remove materials left by the previous operation.

• It was our first time using radial machining to create the pins for the two-part mold.

• Parallel finishing was run twice, the second time perpendicular to the first, in order to create a smoother finish that requires minimal postprocessing. The step-over distance was set at 15% due to time constraints caused by the size of the mold.

2. Lamination: • As our handle is quite large, we required 2 pieces of foam for each side of the mold.

• Due to the minimal contact area of laminating the foam pieces side by side, the stock required additional support at the bottom to maintain structural stability during the milling process.

• The blocks are first laminated together using super glue and spray-on activator, followed by the plywood support using the same method.

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Left Mold Roughing

Left Mold Pocketing

Left Mold Radial

Left Mold Finishing 1

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Left Mold Finishing 2

Right Mold Roughing

Right Mold Pocketing

Right Mold Radial

Right Mold Finishing 1

Right Mold Finishing 2

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Handle 5 - Design Development Two Part Mold Milling Porcess & Reflection

Mold making process: 1. Milling Process: • The setup was difficult as the x12y12 jig was cut into during the previous job, making the jig inaccurate. As a result, a couple of extra steps were used to accurately place the stock at x12y12.

• Other than the beginning, the milling process went smoothly and quickly.

2. Reflection: • We were surprised by the mostly seamless connection between the two pieces of foam.

• We noticed some scalloping that are the result of the 15% step-over finish.

• We decided to not sand the scalloping to preserve the faint texture made during the milling process.

• For the future, we think it would be interesting to intentionally use a higher step-over percentage to include the scalloping texture as an aesthetic element of the design. However, for this project, we want to have a rather smooth finish.

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Milling Process

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Combined Two Part Mold

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Casting Process Exterior Door Handle

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Handle In Mold Exterior Door Handle

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Handle 6 - Design Development Design Adjustments and Material Choices

Design Adjustments: 1. Door joint surface addition: • Based on previous feedback, we added a 1/8th inch thin attachment surface, functions as both an attachment to the door surface, as well as provides depth from the handle geometry to the door, creating a floating effect to accentuate the handle geometry.

2. Handle groove adjustment: • To support the hand grip and provide more ergonomics, we deepened the grip in the middle more since the previous milled prototype. We also adjusted the geometry to support milling tool by having the thinnest region of the grip at least 1/4th inch.

Material Choices: 1. Maple and Lumber yard visit: • We went on a trip to a lumber yard and brought back a piece of walnut. To prepare for milling, we adjusted the feeds and speed of the CNC when setting up tool paths to fit the material after consulting with Terry.

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HANDLE 6 MILLED INTERIOR HANDLE

Final Geometry Interior Handle

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Walnut Final Stock

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Milling In Porgress Interior Door Handle

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FINAL HANDLES

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Design Diagram

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Layered Short Section

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Layered Long Section

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Plaster Casted Handle Exterior Handle

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Adult Hand Placement Exterior Handle

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Child Hand Placement Exterior Handle

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Milled Walnut Handle Interior Handle

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Adult Hand Placement Interior Handle

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Child Hand Placement Interior Handle

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Exterior + Interior Postive & Negative Space

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