mobile woodshop?

This guy even posted the plans on google sketch up

Manufacturing Super from retrosuperfuture on Vimeo.

Printing titanium bicycle parts. A Charge Bikes collaboration with European Aeronautic Defence and Space from Charge Bikes on Vimeo.

arrowmont

So I just got back from Arrowmont. What a blast. I met so many interesting artisans and students. I taught a "green studio" class which involved alternative techniques to keep your metals studio environmentally friendly. Of course working in metals as a whole is kind of nasty.  It can be almost impossible to get around using chemicals and acids that often create fumes and hazardous waste. For my workshop I demoed different pickle recipes, pouring ingots from scrap, Japanese alloys, alternative patinas etc etc etc.  My mantra for the workshop was "don't be lazy". I learned a lot and I hope that the students took home a lot of new information to make their home studios safer. Arrowmont is a magical place. I often find myself wishing that academia could be more like a workshop. There are no grades, there are no due dates and everyone has a great attitude. I can't wait till next summer when I can have the time to teach another workshop. Also, the food at Arrowmont touched my heart. Being from the south and living in the north I have missed some of Virginia's staple foods. Grits, biscuits and gravy, pie, country ham, BBQ, they had it all! I would highly recommend taking a workshop, retreat or just a visit really. I loved meeting with the resident artists and assistants. I also loved talking with all the instructor and finding out their format for what they were teaching. Over all I brought back a ton of info for future workshops and future projects. I am very excited to get the year started at SUNY. We have a bunch of incoming grads and undergrads and I will be busy whipping the studio into shape the next couple of days.

Thanks Ford

Final Coin

So I think I have settled on the final finish for this thing. Here is what I did....The sprues were cut off from the casting.  Then the edge of the coin was polished with a rubberized abrasive wheel.  Then it was bead blasted.  Then it was darkened.  Then it was brass brushed with dove dish soap.  Then it was rubbed with a abrasive pad to bring out the highlights. They all have little doodads here and there (pits,slugs,flashing and seams showing) but over all I am VERY happy with it.  I finished 30 of them and now I have 70 left to do. I am lucky enough to have a few folks helping. Lynn Batchelder and my wife to name a few.

coin update

The coins are here!!!! Well some of them. They were 3D printed and then cast in white brass. I have yet to figure out how to finish them. So many.....so many. First I have to cut off all of the sprues. Then they have to be pickled. Then they have to be brass brushed. Then they will go into the tumbler. Then they will be darkened. Then they have to be brushed again. Whew. Lots of work to do. NO TIME TO DO IT!!!! If anyone is bored and has nothing to do in New Paltz tomorrow or Saturday and you are somewhat familiar with metals I could use a hand. Sunday there will be a big event in New Paltz on main street to celebrate 125 years of being awesome! Come check it out. I will be easy to spot because I will probably have polishing compound in my beard and all over my fingers. I could not have done it without the help of Vegan powered cookies from Vegan Obrien Baking company or TABA casting in NY.  Thanks.

more electroforming

Still having some issues with electroforming. It is still cracking. If I can find a way to clean the parts that is not too aggressive I can fill them with enamel. So far the best way to clean them has been with the bead-blaster. Even at a low PSI it makes the cracks bigger and weaker. For the most part they are in the deeper grooves and this batch have had the least amount of cracks out of all of them. These were in the bath for around 36 hours at .7 volts. I started to see some nodules so I turned it down to .5 volts for the last 8 hours. When I turned it down I also rotated them so they would be facing 180 degrees from where they started. They should probably have been in there for longer? OR maybe lower? Or higher? This doesn't seem like an exact science to me. These results are infuriating. It could also be that there is something in the bottom of the bath screwing things up. Students tend to drop all kinds of things in the bath.....screwdrivers, screws, hose clamps, anodes, their pieces, wax, sandwiches. I found an whole anode in the bottom of the bath. It must have been in the bath for at least six months screwing everything up.

coin project

So I thought I would do a two part post about these coins that I have been working on for the Village of New Paltz.  I believe the cat is out of the bag.  I am about to get really busy with other projects so here are the preliminary designs in all their glory.  I love all of them.  The top, faceted edge, was my fave.

  This was a VERY difficult project to undertake.  First, I didn't know if it could be done.  I was confident in my CAD work but truthfully I was not quite sure if the detail would come out in the 3d printing process.  When you work with a group of people it can be hard to get all of the details in.  There was a lot of back and forth to get it just right. A little change here.  A little change there.  It got a little crazy.

  I have to admit, in order to bridge the gap between the school and the village I decided to not charge for my time.  I also did a lot of the negotiation with the casting company to get them to donate a lot of the work.  I think that with the next project, that will change. As a lot of you know I undervalue my work and time.  For me that is okay but you should NEVER undervalue another persons time.  A lot of people helped with this project and it is till going and going and going. Soon to be finished.  Thanks for all the help.

  This first post will just include the renders.  The next post will include the 3D prints and then the actual cast coins. The final coin is a little larger that I would have liked.  It was hovering around 44mm last time I checked. Not too bad but we are for sure getting out of the coin realm and into the the medal or medallion range.  Anyhoo I should have more photos in a couple of days. 

 

kickstarter The sublime Experiment

sink insert

I made a new sink insert to go in the basic metals room sink. The old one was falling apart. We use this thing to wet polish metal. It is elevated to prevent pumice from going directly in our traps when the water is running. It is hard to tell in the photo but there are these bins under this contraption that catch everything. I gave this one a LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene) top. Hopefully it will last a bit longer than the old one. The old one was at least five years old so.......fingers crossed

bath tub thing

More more more

More things. More things. More things. CNC'ed wax then electroforming.

all kinds of crazy stuff!

Oh man..... So it has been a long time since I posted.  I have been just completely swamped with a million and one things and adding to the blog is the last thing on my mind.   Here is what I have been doing for the last seven weeks or so.

1. Serving on the OPC (Online Presence Committee) helping launch the new SNAG website in time for the SNAG conference in Phoenix
2. Working at SUNY.  Re-upping the metals studio.
3. Finishing up pieces and sending them out for shows (enamel inlay badges, photos below)
4. Working in the Digi Fab Lab over the summer (installing equipment, buying and stocking material)
5. Getting ready to teach a workshop at Arrowmont (Green studio practices)
6. Getting ready to go to Oslo (visiting artist)
7. Visiting my Mom back home after her knee surgery
8.  Going to dinner parties, Having dinner parties, eating dinner.  Yelling at the cats.
9. Moving, Unpacking, and settling in to our new place in Rifton.  (being closer to Kingston)
10. Buying a new kiln. (have yet to fire it up)
11. Fixing my computer (dropped in a new solid state hard drive)
12. Practicing enameling for my enameling class next semester (so many things I have not done in so long  cloisonne, plique-a-jour, champleve etc)
13. working on a commemorative coin for the village of New Paltz (I will post about this later)
etc etc etc etc

I know this seems lazy but here are a boatload of photos of all that stufff