It's a Pac-Man Party! (Coasters and Coaster Holder) - Design Tech Project

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     In this project I worked on making Pac-Man themed coasters and a coaster holder to hold them. To make my project, I first started by trying to find a good idea I would be happy with making. It took some time, but after finding a few ideas I chose to make 6 coasters all with different characters or items from Pac-Man. I got reference photos of Pac-Man, two ghosts, one of those scared ghosts, a pixelized strawberry, and the pixelized cherries, all from the internet. Once I put together the reference photos, I got to work on designing what I wanted to laser cut or a software called Adobe Illustrator. The weeks before we started our projects we had been taught how to use Adobe Illustrator, so it wasn't too hard but still a little difficult. It took me around 3 of the 2 hour classes to finish the designs and once I was done I was has happy with the finished products. I was one of the first to get my design uploaded to google drive and put on the laser printer for engraving. But it's a little more complicated than that. 




    First you have to turn on both switches/buttons to turn on the laser cutter, then you need to put tape on the whole area of the wood to prevent burnt parts, then put the right settings for the laser cutter for your size and type of wood, move the laser to the right spot, and finally press go. Once the coasters were done being engraved and cut I took the tape off of them and began getting my coaster holder ready. The coaster holder was really easy to design because of it's simple build so it was soon ready to be cut out on the CNC router. When I began the cutting on the CNC router it was pretty loud and took a while, but it was all worth it when the coaster holder was done. Then I glued the pieces together and sanded everything. The last thing I did to finish my coasters and coaster holder was put the wood finish on them to make them nice and pristine. 

   I really enjoyed making this project because I had the freedom to make anything I wanted and I was able to make something I would keep and actually use. The only difficult times I had in this project were when I was almost done with everything and I wanted to put felt on the bottom of the coasters to make them more smooth. But once I did I realized they no longer fit in my coaster holder, so I had to either take them off or sand down my whole coaster holder a lot. I decided it would be better if I just took the felt off so I did that, although it would have been cool if I didn't. Also, now that I have finished my coasters I plan to use them at my house when guests come over.



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