Metal Fabrication Workshop- Incense Burner Construction

So this is the last of my Brunel Workshops for this year; metal fabrication.

So we started off being given our set amount of metal. the metal we are using is called guilding metal, which is a copper(95%) and zinc(5%) alloy. We then set about learning about the workshop and the various machines.

With the tour done done we were taught how to solder the metal together and were each given a go at it ourselves as we would be doing this for our work later. The soldering was very similar to the brazing work I had done earlier (see this chair). When the joint was made we were encouraged to try and destroy it which if you had done it right you couldn't.

So back to work and the first job was to creat the impression of the oil bowl (try saying that fast 20 times without saying boil) using a large pressing machine.

 That done I then began cutting out the parts to my design on the band saw, two long tall pieces with one splayed end each and mm spaced cuts down most of the length and a round flat base. These two pieces I then hit repeadly with a hammer (an actual technique!) to give them an interesting texture. This process did however result in work hardening so to remove this the round piece was annealed by heating it up till it went red to soften it.

The tall side pieces were then put through a metal wringer to curve them, along with the piece that was then soldered to form the part that will hold the tea light.

 I then soldered the side pieces and the tea light bit to the base, in their correct positions,

 

 I then began to splay out and model the cut ends of the side pieces into, well a large natural looking tangle. My idea was to replicate the sort of natural feel of both trees and the flames/smoke of fire.

When that was done I took the oil bowl, now cut out and cleaned up and soldered that in place amongst the tangle of metal. This was quite tricky as when applying the heat, if it stayed in one point, would easily melt through the metal, so I had to watch the flame very carefully.

Once cool it was submerged in an acid bath over night to remove any dirt and discolouration from the soldering and any small rough bits from the cutting. When it was out of the bath I set to work with a dremmel sanding away any rough or sharp edges and any left over discolouration.

 The aim of the workshop was to create a highly polished and reflective finish, but with the complexity of my design both me and the technician agreed that was impossible in the alloted time for me. So I got it to as high a standard as I colud in the time.
Overall I am pleased with how it has come out and have put it through a couple of test runs already where the shadows from the....branches(?)....create intesting shapes around it and it works well. So that was the last of the five very enjoyable and satisfying workshops of my first year at Brunel.

Metal Fabrication Workshop- Incense Burner Designs

So first my apologies there hasn't been a new post in a month now. In my defence I have been quite busy so there is lots of new material for more posts.

So for my last workshop the aim is to make an Incense Burner out of a brass like copper alloy. We have been told that we are limited in the amount of material we can use to a 100mm2 piece for the oil to sit in and a 200mm2 piece for the rest. With that in mind here are some of the designs I came up with for that brief.

The final design I have chosen to go with is this one below. My aim is to imitate the wavy lines of smoke that come up from burning incense in metal that will support the bowl.

To help me visualise it I attempted a paper model

The model kind of conveys the idea but not particularly well so you'll have to wait to see what it really will look like.

Brunel Watercolours

Yesterday started as a very stressful day, after having to stay up till 5:30 to get a lab report done, I then had to get up at 8 to finish the report and get to the days lectures. So suffice to say at the end of the day I wanted a way to unwind so, see how it was a glorious day I decided to head out on a walk around campus with some equipment to see if I could find a spot for some watercolours. Sure enough I found a nice spot and, just as the sun was beginning to set, spent an hour doing these two paintings.

Two postcard size studies of part of Brunel University. I must say I really enjoyed doing both of these. I was able to fully relax for the first time in ages, sitting in an idyllic spot under a willow beside the trickling stream that runs through the campus as the sun slowly set, it was bliss. The only downside I guess is that I had to stop early as it got quite cold and I had to go to archery, but still it was very nice.

Rig Building

So its a couple of weeks old, but this is the time lapse video from the Rig Building day I recently did as part of a team for our experience project. The brief of the project, given to us by our first outside clients the charity Building Trust International, is to create accommodation for 8 migrant workers living in Singapore in a 20m2 and 4m high area. as part of answering this brief we built a full size model of one of the components for the design. This was to check the dimensions and possibility of someone sleeping in this component, or 'pod'. Below is a time lapse video I took through out the day showing both the construction and dismantling of the rig.

From the rig, we found that our dimensions were good, if anything too generous so this allowed us to slightly change our design for the better use of the available space. Here are also some pictures taken during the process.

 

Stealth Sci-Fi Fighter

This is a Hi Tech Sci-Fi sort of Stealth Fighter Plane Ship thingy. It was done through following one of the tutorials from Doug Chiang's Book Mechanika which I have touched upon before. 

 The first and largest obstacle I had with this was getting the initial design right. As with all this sort of work, if the design is no good, then no amount of rendering or presentation will turn it into a good design so getting that right was key. The sketches above are a testament to that with what I thought were not quite good enough designs. Another aspect I had a problem with was getting the perspective right with the wings and multiple layers.

Eventually I settled on this sketch because, although I knew the perspective was slightly off at the front, I knew I could edit it in photoshop, which I did in the image to the left.

Once In photoshop I replaced the sketch with black lines to complete the design and create a clean and easy to work with outline. I then used red lines to identify the areas that would be in shadow.

Using the fill bucket I added in the preliminary shadows. I then used gradients to add the lighting effects to the rest of the ship.

Next the original lines were duplicated and inverted adding detail to the darkest sections. Then I used an overlay layer to add the colour.

Finally I added some more highlights and shadows with the gradient and brush tools, before creating a shadow and backdrop to ground the design and a mechanic/pilot for scale.

Outdoor Sketch

Today was a really nice day, so I decided to spend some time just sitting outside, doing a bit of reading (By Design, Ralph Caplan- very good design read) and doing this sketch. A nice ending to a quite intense week.

Model Workshop 4

This is the completed Mouse Model, fully assembled. Its made by hand(mostly) out of Polyurethane(mostly) and is spray painted(mostly). I am pleased at how it has come out and I am really looking forward to making my own designs out of it next year.

Below are some different views of the model