Final Experiments Continued

I conducted another PVC experiment with temperature. The PVC was able to hold up to small amounts of heat applied by the heat gun, however, I was curious as to how it would react with cold temperatures. I placed several samples of PVC in my dorm freezer and took them out to experiment with several hours later. The cold had not effect on the painted PVC, nor the bonds formed by the PVC glue. I took one PVC pipe and smashed it against the ground. It cracked with little effort. In comparison, it took much more force to break PVC of the same size at room temperature. The cold temperature made the PVC brittle and stiff. This lead me to believe that bending PVC already bent in a jig, and applied to cold temperature, would be more likely to break or fracture. Finally, I procured some old fabric from the presidential podium. This fabric, lycra, is a double knit warp fabric material that can stretch in both directions. I plan to experiment with in tomorrow's class to see if I am able to incorporate it, or another fabric like it, into my project,

Final Experiments

I have concluded my experiments with PVC and have some interesting information to share with the class. I finished up and experiment with paint color and found that wet sanding with high grit sand paper and PVC surface can produce great results. Note the photo below. I was able to get a smoothing, almost glossy looking finish in both cases (PVC primer, PVC primer and glue). Additionally, I received results from the heat bending of the PVC piping in the jigs. I slowly applied heat from a heat gun, running it along the surface of the PVC and gradually ending the form to fit into the jig. After each peace cooled I was able to take them out and apply pressure. I found it hardest to bend the most severe ark and easiest to bend the smoothest ark.

Flashhhhhlight Revvvvvised

I was unsatisfied with the finishing touches on my yellow foam flashlight project, so I made the decision to redo the paint job. I spent a few hours sanding how the layers of primer and paint that were previously on the surface of the foam. It took several sheets of 60 grit sand paper and a dremmel sander to completely remove all the paint. I then build up the scarred surfaces with glazed spot putty. After sanding the surface until it was even and smooth, I began to apply primer. I applied far to many coats the first time around, so this time I set the limit at too. After each coat would dry, I was able to spot the irregularities in the surface and could then go back and fill them in with more glazed spot putty. When this was done I wet sanded the model and began applying Rustolium Aluminum colored paint. I learned form the previous attempt, that chrome (any kind of brand) is a poor choice of paint color because it reveals every imperfection in your surface and can take up to a week to fully dry. I applied thee light coats of Aluminum and am currently waiting for the flashlight to dry. I should be ready to go by Wednesday! Thanks for you patients.

i made 3 different forms out of yellow foam to vacume form out of styrene to make the small molds, but i used 20 mil styrene and the vacume formwas to hot from previous use that the styrene shrunk and i could not make my molds, so for next time i plan to use thicker styrene to try and make my molds

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                the second experiment i did was try to make a very small mold out of plaster and yellow foam to pour cement later on into the plaster mold. to prevent the yellow foam piece to stick to the plaster i covered the piece with oil but as the plaster dried and i tried to get the yellow foam out the mold broke so i decided to make a mold out of styrene in the vacume form

                                                                                                             one of my experiments was to try and play with the color of the cement so i pour clear oil in one cup and colored oil in the other so i put the concrete in each cup and let it dry over night but when the cement was dry the pigment in the cement changed very little not even enough to notice it at all so i am going to try to dye the cement with cement dye 

Marshall's continued vacuum forming

During class I continued experimenting with different methods to try to keep the acrylic from bubbling while heating up to the right temperature. The best I found ,which are numbers 6 and 7, is to heat up the acrylic for 40 seconds then turn off the heating element and lift it as well to let the acrylic reach a consistent temperature throughout.

Carolyn's 2nd Glass Experiment

During last class I started to try several different types of glue to see what kind of glue is the strongest and clearest to use with glass. I tried every type of glue four ways, edge to edge, one piece on top of another, glass on wood and glass on plastic. For all the different types of glue, each glue preformed the same with gluing method. One of the first glues I tried was gorilla glue. Although it dried very strong, it did not dry completely clear and because it had to be clamped I believe it would be hard to use to make certain angles and shapes with glass. Another glue I tried was super weatherstip adhesive. This glue is yellow and therefore although strong looked horrible. A third type of glue I tried was Aquarium Sealant. This sealant dried clear and mostly unnoticeable but took 24 hours to dry. Because of this it would be hard to make something fast with this try of glue or make something that requires one piece to dry before gluing on another piece. The plus side to aquarium sealant is that it makes the joints leak proof. Because of the long drying time I think it would be best to glue the glass with something else and then one the seams are dry, cover them with aquarium sealant to make it water proof. The two types of glue that I though work the best were Super Glue and Flowable Silicone Windshield & Glass Sealer. Both of this glues dries very clear and appear to be very strong. The Super Glue dried almost instantly which is great for speed but bad if you need to make an adjustment. The Flowable Silicone Windshield & Glass Sealer cures in 24 hrs but is dry within an hour. The advantage to this glue is that it is waterproof. Next I want to look into have glass is connected to make stained glass panels.