Gears Grind On
No clue yet what fallout there will be from the stuff that happened last week. The silence was more or less broken, but from the way the conversation read, it has the feeling of a bunch of people gathered around the kitchen table during a hurricane, and even as the house is falling down people are ignoring it for the sake of being pleasant.
Despite that, nothing overt has happened, so I have to take that as a good sign. In the mean while, the gears in my head continue to go 'round and 'round. I'm learning about hard mold casting, soft mold casting, open face molds, two and three-part molds, injection molding, resin molding, the whole nine yards. It's fascinating!
For a modeler, open face molds have got to be the coolest thing ever. Let's say you're building up a new master of a house. You can... A - Model everything from scratch. B - Pull down your stack of open-faced molds, cast up a bunch of doorknobs, mailboxes, house trim, windows, doors, doorbells, etc., and get to work. Option B saves countless hundreds of hours. And lest anyone say this takes the artistry out of the art, I must disagree. In a way it puts the artistry back into the art. You can spend a few days designing and making the perfect set of doorknobs, and rather than face the drudgery of repeating that each and every time you need one, you get one in just a couple of minutes. So you get to devote the time and energy necessary to make perfect masters, and then get to use these perfect parts every time you need one. The artistry in the final work improves because your previous efforts are so readily available.
So I'm looking at making masters for open face molds. Eventually there are a few projects that will require two or three-part molds, but open face molds are an excellent place to start. If I can crank out a couple of sets of useful things in order to try the technique, that'd be great.
So my head's reeling from that. It's also reeling from some new software I'm picking up at work. The Powers That Be agreed that getting a 3D modeling program that can make honest-to-goodness parts would be a Good Thing. So I'm learning Rhino 3D. People design real things in it, not just soap bar blob things, and a couple of machining buddies of mine swear by it. A license is only around $500 US from a reseller, so it's not as lethal as, say, AutoCAD. From what I've seen the software is fantastic. What's even better is it works really well with my CAM software, so if I can draw it in such a way that tools can lay cutting edges to material, I know I can make it.
So despite the misgivings of last week, things are still looking up. I'm past the hump, so to speak, and even if I'm dropped tomorrow (or today... the day is yet young), I won't let it get to me worse than it already has.
On another subject, I'm getting together with a friend of mine who's a jeweler. They're making up a bunch of silver rings to put settings onto, and I get to help. Yippee! I've been wanting to learn torch work, and can't wait to give this a try. I'm a little apprehensive about messing up, but from what my friend said it's not too bad. If things go horribly wrong, you can always melt the joint out or sawcut it and start over. Even the worst gunk can be taken care of with careful pickling, filing, and polishing. I can't wait to find out!
Pencil
P.S. See? I'm really not morose all the time!
Despite that, nothing overt has happened, so I have to take that as a good sign. In the mean while, the gears in my head continue to go 'round and 'round. I'm learning about hard mold casting, soft mold casting, open face molds, two and three-part molds, injection molding, resin molding, the whole nine yards. It's fascinating!
For a modeler, open face molds have got to be the coolest thing ever. Let's say you're building up a new master of a house. You can... A - Model everything from scratch. B - Pull down your stack of open-faced molds, cast up a bunch of doorknobs, mailboxes, house trim, windows, doors, doorbells, etc., and get to work. Option B saves countless hundreds of hours. And lest anyone say this takes the artistry out of the art, I must disagree. In a way it puts the artistry back into the art. You can spend a few days designing and making the perfect set of doorknobs, and rather than face the drudgery of repeating that each and every time you need one, you get one in just a couple of minutes. So you get to devote the time and energy necessary to make perfect masters, and then get to use these perfect parts every time you need one. The artistry in the final work improves because your previous efforts are so readily available.
So I'm looking at making masters for open face molds. Eventually there are a few projects that will require two or three-part molds, but open face molds are an excellent place to start. If I can crank out a couple of sets of useful things in order to try the technique, that'd be great.
So my head's reeling from that. It's also reeling from some new software I'm picking up at work. The Powers That Be agreed that getting a 3D modeling program that can make honest-to-goodness parts would be a Good Thing. So I'm learning Rhino 3D. People design real things in it, not just soap bar blob things, and a couple of machining buddies of mine swear by it. A license is only around $500 US from a reseller, so it's not as lethal as, say, AutoCAD. From what I've seen the software is fantastic. What's even better is it works really well with my CAM software, so if I can draw it in such a way that tools can lay cutting edges to material, I know I can make it.
So despite the misgivings of last week, things are still looking up. I'm past the hump, so to speak, and even if I'm dropped tomorrow (or today... the day is yet young), I won't let it get to me worse than it already has.
On another subject, I'm getting together with a friend of mine who's a jeweler. They're making up a bunch of silver rings to put settings onto, and I get to help. Yippee! I've been wanting to learn torch work, and can't wait to give this a try. I'm a little apprehensive about messing up, but from what my friend said it's not too bad. If things go horribly wrong, you can always melt the joint out or sawcut it and start over. Even the worst gunk can be taken care of with careful pickling, filing, and polishing. I can't wait to find out!
Pencil
P.S. See? I'm really not morose all the time!
posted by pencil at 3:24 PM
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