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.

First casting

Here are the results of my first casting experiment. It replicated the shape perfectly and turned out pretty well for a first experiment. One issue was that when I was pouring the plastic it started to harden in my mixing container and I was unable to fill it up all the way.
I also did an experiment in pigmentation. I will post pictures of that soon.

Eliot Coven Final Project Experiment 2

So lately I have been messing around with copper etching. Its a pretty crazy process and so many websites tell you to do things differently. It took a lot of research to figure out a somewhat safe and reliable experiment. I finally found that you can use ferric chloride to etch copper. However, its really hard to find/buy the stuff. I then found out that you can buy muriatic acid (concrete etching acid, from Stanley's 3 dollars) and hydrogen peroxide (the stuff you clean wounds with, rite aid, $2.50) to make etching solution. All you do is mix the hydrogen peroxide to the muriatic acid 2:1. I then tried a couple of sample pieces that I sanded and cleaned. One copper sample I wrote my initials on with black sharpie and one I wrote on with green sharpie. I also put rubber cement on one also. I even put 2 pennies in. The acid solution immediately turned neon green and slightly bubbled. I took them out at different rates, 20 minutes and one hour. The black sharpie and the rubber cement worked the best. Also, the longer I keep it in the stronger the etch. The penny had a whole burn through it and the copper pipe you can see my initials ares etched into it. I still need to experiment with printing images on toner transfer paper and ironing it onto copper. This should work better than sharpie or rubber cement. Next class I will hopefully have the supplies to do this experiment. I will also try bending pipes using different techniques such as filling the tube with sand and with ice to stop it from flexing.

Sean Kennon - Metal Experiments

I have begun experimenting with steel. So far it's waaaaaay better than Mike Hummel's experiments. Oh man. First, I made a sand bag out of a pantleg. I got this idea from some research I did, and it works pretty well and I don't need a log. Thanks to a friend in fashion design, it is the best looking sandbag ever.

I hammered out some scrap sheet steel to form a bowl shape with a standard hammer.

A ball peen hammer would probably be more effective, and a shallower curved hammer would be best.

NEXT EXPERIMENT: Flux Welding (oh god the horror)

First I did some test weld beads on a flat plane, they look nasty compared to real MIG welds, but I can see that with practice they can be strong and neater than before.

Then some tests joining parts. A corner weld and a butt weld.

Third experiment: Grinding

Grinding and metal brushing the welds and metal surface clearly improved the look of the welds. It removed the discolorations from welding and smoothed out bumpy and lumpy welds.

Updated Final Project

I have changed my material from liquid plastic to plywood. I have bought square cut outs of hardwood plywood. So it has a smooth finish on it and it is not filled with knots and is really rough. My three experiments will be cutting curves in the wood to see how the bandsaw will be able to cut radii. Also I will be researching the different types of joints like miter joints,t joints etc. My third experiment will be sanding and finishing the wood. Basically I would like to see how smooth I can get the wood and also how much I can sand off. From there I will see how paint sticks to the plywood and use different finishes on it

Mike Hummel Steel experimentations twoo

I decided to practice making some more joints today using thicker steel tubing. I first made some 45 degree cuts with the chop saw.

I then used the grinder to make sure the pieces were flush with each other.

I then began welding and luckily this time I was able to use some argon which I borrowed from Dan. My welds turned out a lot better and after some some more grinding at the joints they looked pretty good. I made two different pieces as seen below.

Jordan_Cork_Experiment 2

Today's experiment involved mixing granulated cork with epoxy in a mold. An identicle technique was used to make this stool. First, I diced sheets of cork to mimic granulated cork. Found two plastic cereal containers. Mixed epoxy (two seringes worth) with the cork in one container. Then, pressed the second cereal container down into the first with seran wrap in between them. The result was a hard cork block with virtually no flexibility. During this experiment I learned expoxy produces a lot of heat during the curing process. This "exothermic reaction" can burn through plastic if enough epoxy is added.