weekend work

It's been a busy weekend. I ran a job for Chloe (student). She's making the pressed steel cross stitch patterns and I'm drilling them on my CNC router. I did three different designs for her this weekend. It's taken most of the weekend to run these. I have to run the router super slow to prevent burning up bits since we're using a number 52 bit for all the holes. Some of the designs have over 3500 holes so it just has to peck away. I learned early on not to mess with trying to run it fast; burned up a few bits. I now have it to the point that I can make a bit last for at least 300 holes. Not too bad in my opinion.

While those were running on the router, I got Lela's (a student) test folded paper bowl ready for casting. Lela is folding paper and assembling these complex three dimensional forms. The one here is small compared to the others. We want to attempt casting some of these via lost paper mold. She probably wants to do aluminum due to cost but I want to see this in bronze. Anyway, we're ready to invest now.

While all of this was happening, I cut some die forms for Asheville jeweler, Laura Wood. I'm going to heat treat these this week and get them to her. I had helped her wit some similar design work before COVID when she took a workshop with me at my studio. Now my former student Elizabeth Walton is working for her and so Elizabeth asked me about these I said I could cut them instead of her using a service bureau. It's a good excuse to test out heat treating aluminum. I've been reading up on it. Looks like it should be simple to do. I suppose I could have cut these in steel, but I had to use a .03 end mill in some sections and I didn't have any steel plate on hand (the right thickness), and I wasn't looking forward to cutting steel with those small end-mills.

I also worked on some RhinoCAM for the inner Ferrari handles and my McMaster Carr order for brass came in so I can cut those soon. I ended up casting bronze versions from some Form Labs 3D prints, but I want to see what the machined ones look like compared to the cast ones. I smoothed out the cast ones while machines were running.

I also worked on one of my cast iron teapots since I have a couple exhibition opportunities coming up. Still trying to decided if I want to enamel this and I think I may design a new handle design for it.

Oh, and I talked to Eric this weekend. Sounds like we're both going through similar stuff in life right now. We've decided to try and help each other out by making a point to chat more frequently. It was good to chat with him. It's reminded me that I need to take time to draw more and I need to plan some big projects that I've had for a while; or at least dream about them to get the ball rolling.

Oh, I put together a bunkbed for Olivia tonight in between the work and helped her cut some wood that she was whittling today. I gave her a pocket knife to and we talked about being responsible with it. Small lessons, but important nonetheless.

Well it feels good to list all of this here, as it's Sunday night and I've been feeling like I haven't gotten anything done for a while. I need to make a point of doing this to keep myself on track.

ali's castings

Olivia and I went into school on Saturday to assist Ali in casting a spoon and fork for her final Senior exhibition. We cast the handle ends in bronze and the opposite ends in silver. There was a little pitting and a freeze at the tip, but Ali had that freeze happen on the past fork and had already decided to roll with it as she was not spruing closer to the tips of the tines to ensure this not happen again. She was happy with the result and will be assembling these to complete the multiple sets for the exhibition.

Liv had a great time assisting with the vacuum and seeing the watery consistency of the molten metal. We hung out all day and grabbed tacos; then we went home and worked in the studio while Milo and her played/chilled in the front yard. Noah was at work at the golf course and Jill and Maya were taking a seminar at church.

 

cnc mokume gane

Earlier this summer I was asked to do a job for Nicole Jacquard. She had James Viste create a couple of mokume-gane billets for her so that she could CNC cut a pattern into the billet and then have him flatten the sheet to make a larger patterned sheet. I believe her goal is to smith a creamer or some kind of container out of it. 

It's really cool to think about mixing digital techniques with the ancient technique of mokume-gane. i was all onboard for this, as it's right up my alley of combining old and new in the hopes of reinvigorating the old or at least building upon the traditions that form the foundation for a specific area of study.

Nicole had previously tried a different machine shop with a different combination of metals, but James was not happy with the result due to the machining done by the machine shop. Nicole asked if it was something I thought I could do on my Tormach and so she sent me some billets and I ran a few tests for her in HDPE before cutting the real deal.  I was able to bang the job out in a couple days. It honestly took more time to make sure the result was what Nicole wanted and to set-up the billets on the machine, then it did to cut them. I was really pleased with the finished result. I sent the billets to James for him to take over.

James sent me the last two images as he was flattening things out. I'm anxious to see the finished piece made from these two sheets of material.