Mike Hummel's synth rack progress

Today I finished my welds on the rack and also drilled the holes that will be used to bolt the rack to my stand. I drilled a total of four holes; 1 vertical and 1 horizontal through the stand and rack on both sides. I also added a piece of sheet metal to the one side since my synth doesn't take up the whole length of the rack. This can be used to hold sheet music or my interface that connects my synth and keyboard to my computer. I grinded down all the joints followed by sanding of the entire piece and finally using Fantastic! to clean the remaining oil off. Now it's time for paint. Some pictures are below.

Jordan_Cork_Final

For my final project I will be designing a cork bicycle seat. Since cork is both moisture and bacteria resistant, I feel that a bike seat is an appropriate application. I plan to obtain an existing bike seat, modify the form by shortening the nose and widening the rear section, then covering the shape with layers of cork and glue. I plan to finish the bike by heat sealing clear PET over the cork.

Experiments on plaster

My first goal when experimenting with the plaster was to find out how well it retains the shape of the mold it was in. I used an old half gallon milk carton, and surprisingly the plaster picked up the majority of the details, down to the little bumps in the plastic. There were no bubbles in the mold either, because while the plaster sets you have to tap the sides of the mold to help release any trapped air.

My second experiment with plaster dealt with using carving tools to forge a shape out of a small block of plaster, and seeing what kind of detail i could get and keep on the surface of the plaster. This worked out really well and was actually surprisingly easy. The plaster is alot easier to shape when there is still moisture left from the mold, as time goes on and the moisture dries out, the plaster is more likely to crumble. I would say if you wanted to carve something, do it sooner than later after it comes out of the mold, as the moisture definitely makes it easier.


My final experiment with plaster was trying to get 2 separate pieces of plaster to attach together, using some kind of adhesive or the plaster itself. Adhesives failed, i tried hot glue, elmers, even apoxy, and all just flaked off after drying. The plaster also didnt work, it just didnt have the strength to hold the two pieces together. So ive concluded from this that if you want 2 pieces attached youre better off making a mold with the two pieces already combined.

Fiberglass final

Today during class I spread the epoxy onto the fleece covering. This will have to cure for about 12 hours before i can start to wet lay the glass. I plan on doing this friday morning so that it can fully cure by saturday morning and i can finish it all weekend. The process of sanding is going to take a long time becasue with the gloss finish i will have to get every imperfection out of it.

Final

For my final project, I am going to create a flower vessel that can either be placed on a deck rail, or a long a path. I am CNC'ing a negative mold that will be filled with concrete. Once the concrete cures, it is going to be gap filled, sealed, and finished.

Eliot Final Project Post

So everything went relatively smoothly on my jewelry box. The acrylic inside I cut on the laser cutter and weld-oned the pieces together very patiently. I made a compartment area on the top for little pieces of jewelry, it is removable. When you pull this piece out you see a large compartment underneath. The frame is made with 1/2 ID copper tubes. I cut them sanded, buffed them and then glued them together with 50 minutes epoxy. The cap for the project was made out of sheet copper. I cut it rectangular and then rounded the edges to match the tubular frame. I then used the acid etching to etch a very large coy fish into the face plate for the box. I bolted the face plate onto the box. The last five percent of my project is taking me way too long! All I need to do is rivet the hinges in place but I bought the wrong size rivets twice and am waiting on that to put the final touches on the piece.