studio improvements summer 2026

This summer I've been working on a few projects in the Metals studio on campus. I have a technical assistant, Sandy, who has been painting all of the ventilation hoods in the studio. When the building was remodeled, we moved back in about this time last year and the hoods were still the old brown that they had been years ago. We gained a few new hoods with the expansion of the studio, but for some reason some of the hoods were painted and some were not. It had been bothering me, but there just wasn't time to fix it during the school year. Well, with Sandy's work, we were finally able to rectify this. The large soldering hood, the chemical room hood, the enameling room hood, and the casting room hoods are all freshly painted. She also painted our forming table metal legs, and some shelving for me. What an improvement!

I also worked on the wall of hammers at the start of the summer by hanging metal pegboard and getting out hammers all hung. I still need to make some vinyl silhouettes but at least it's up and the hammers all have a home. I was able to purchase a new Bonny Doon press with electric pump. I am super stoked about this. And we were able to get a really nice Neutec JR-2 casting machine. I still have some work to get the proper wiring on this, but we are really starting to expand the tools that we have. We'll have a new Vcella kiln for our enameling area coming soon as well. I received a grant from the Enamelist Society for this new addition. 

We only have a few weeks before the new semester starts, but I've been working on getting everything ready. This sure beats last summer at the same time. We still weren't sure if we'd be moved in before classes started and we received occupancy the weekend before classes started. It was kind of a mess, so I feel like I'm finally getting things where they should be. I also rewrote all of the curriculum last year and the new Metals concentration starts this year. I'm thankful that our new leadership has a vision for what we might become and that things are improving for our students through the new programming and facility improvements that are happening. I can't wait to see what the new year brings.

 

velocipede jeweler's saw

I mentioned in a previous post that a few folks from the AppState DigFab group have been getting together each day this past week to work in the studio at school and make some work over the span of two weeks. We meet for breakfast and lunch and work in between. It's been fun to dedicate some time to making some work for an upcoming exhibition. I have a few things in the works this week, but the main big project has been my velocipede jewelers saw. I cast the parts for this in Milwaukee in July of 2010 and this piece has moved across the country with me in an unfinished state for the last sixteen years. You can read and see pictures of me casting it back then in the foundry with Chuck.

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/velocipede.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/velocipede-progress.html
https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/fragmented-day.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-of-work.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-molds.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/hot-tear-weld.html

I also cast a bunch of bicycle seats in aluminum around the same time. 

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/aluminum-bicycle-seat.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-progress.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/seat-shells.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/broken-seat-shells.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/cut-seat-sprues.html

I had mocked up the piece a while ago in my studio next to Spice Bottom Creek and it was sitting there a few weeks ago when I was cleaning and organizing my studio and I figured it was time to drag it out and attempt to finish it. This past week, I brought it to campus and set up a workspace in the Sculpture studio. I 3D scanned the piece in it's current state and then I got to work making a few prototype wheel designs for it. I think I've come to a final design that will work for this. I have some mdf glued up that I'll use to make some foundry patterns for making a mold in resin bonded sand. I spent most of the week cleaning up the cast texture from all of the parts since I want this to be fairly sleek. I'm trying to accentuate the various curves and facets of the cast pieces and I'm pleased with how they are coming out. I'm not moving as fast as I would like on this, but I need to take my time and do things right. I hope I can CNC mill the wheel pattern first thing tomorrow. I still have a long list of things that need to be made and figured out. I also have a few smaller projects that I'm also currently working on.

The tool aspect of this piece is something that I'm enjoying. I had gotten away from making tools for a while and this feels right to me. It also hits a part of my soul since I cast this in Milwaukee and it gives me the midwest feels since the original Barnes velocipede was designed and made in Rockford, IL.  There is also something about this that hits the mark and reminds me of bare metal hotrods from Rodder's Journal and hand built cars and motorcycles and furniture. I can't yet put my finger on it yet, but it is starting to have some of the vibes that I was hoping for, but had not taken the time to get it far enough along to start feeling good about it. It's funny how you have to get past this certain point with a piece to feel like you can continue. I think I'm there now, just too bad it took sixteen years to get there.

Getting back into the blog this week is making me think about some things that I've been discussing with Jill. Eric's visit has me thinking about these things too. I took a break from social media last Spring. I got back on at the start of the summer and now I've had to leave it again a few weeks ago. I felt good the first time I left it and I feel even better this time. What is it about that stuff. On one hand I want to know what's going on with friends and people I know, but it's a curse at the same time. I'm realizing that I haven't done any real introspective thinking about what I'm doing or making since i stopped blogging. I don't write enough in my sketchbook or even sketch for that matter. 

Scrolling other people's content has a numbing effect and leaves me empty with no ability for self reflection. Maybe that's the point. Rewire our brains to look at others; compare and then render us unable to formulate a real sincere and unique thought of our own. Bombard us with content so we don't have to tackle the important quiet moments that we NEED to have with ourselves. Steal every quiet moment from us, and make us a part of a perpetual machine that accomplishes nothing but to brainwash us by segregating us into our own echo chambers. Make it so we don't really connect with people where we might hear other people's points of view and tackle hard conversations and topics. Steal the time we would normally have, loving the people that we live with, sharing our thoughts and feelings, and being creative.  

Well, I'm going to try and work on these things and myself and make an attempt to think about things I feel and see; and use this space to do it all again. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

3d scanning: reverse engineering cast iron parts

A few weeks ago I purchased a new 3D scanner. Adam had someone reach out to him to see if we could reverse engineer a part for a Ford Model A woody. He had one bracket from the right side, but he needed a left side bracket. I 3D scanned the bracket and then Adam took the model and mirrored it and scaled it to allow for shrinkage via iron casting. the owner will make a mold to pour in iron. I printed a version from the raw scan and it's crazy how much texture is picked up from the scan. The reduced mesh model I gave to Adam actually printed better, but its amazing the amount of info the scanner can get. The scanning markers are awesome for aligning the model and I am in awe of how much better things have gotten with 3D scanning.

I really enjoy this kind of work. It makes me think that I should start a business recreating hard to find parts for automotive and motorcycle industry or at least make one off parts for people restoring old cars or bikes. I just want someone else to run the business and I'll do the work.

 

adam hawk

Last Monday I went down to Penland to visit Adam Hawk and see his slideshow. Adam has been teaching a workshop for the last two weeks in the Iron Studio at Penland. Adam is running the Digital Fabrication program that I started at UWM and he has also started a Blacksmithing program at UWM. He has gotten considerable funding from the Windgate Foundation and really build a stellar blacksmithing studio. I have an undergrad who received a Digital Fabrication Fellowship to go work with Adam and I've been following his work for quite some time. I had connected with him for the first time a few months ago at Fire on the Mountain, but I thought it would be cool to see what he's teaching and see some of his samples. Adam showed me a bunch of sample pattern plates that he milled in steel and then used as forging dies for 3D work. He also showed me some of his experiments with canister Damascus using 3D printed extrusion patterns. Cool stuff for certain! He was also working on a small sculpture for the auction as he was teaching. It looked like the students were learning a lot and having a really good time. I ran into some other familiar faces while I was visiting and had some great conversations. I'm thankful that Adam took the time to visit with me and show me around. Always good to connect with him.

Adam has milled several of these pieces on the other Tormach I purchased with grant money when I was at UWM. I really like how he's using the milled steel tooling to create other work. It's a smart use of CNC machining. I also really like that there's a layering of process that leads to the work/pieces having more character. I also like that the 3D pieces are born out of a fairly flat tool and that he's not simply machining a 3D object out a large block of material. The process seems economical and smart. I've had ideas about forging aluminum forms from CNC machined steel dies so this was really intriguing to me. 

I'm reminded by how great my location is for being able to connect with so many makers that come to this area to teach and how this impacts my thinking. Feeling grateful for where I'm at today.