The theme of this week was plasma cutting, so I decided to make a bottle opener out of the provided steel.  I created a template for the cutter using Adobe Illustrator. Luckily the professor provided us with a nice diamond shape to use as a template, then I added in the rest of the geometry by hand. Afterwards, it was time to cut the diamonds out on the plasma cutter! The resulting bottle openers had a lot of dross (excess material) on the edges that needed to be removed. In order to remove it, I used an angle grinder and went to town!

The angle grinding not only removed the dross, but also introduced some swirls into the surface of the metal. Moreover, the grinding created an uneven finish on metal that was quite unpleasing to look at. To remedy this I used a sand blaster.

After sandblasting, it was time to prepare the openers for painting. I created a simple mask to cover the areas I wanted to preserve the sandblasting. Once this was finished on both sides, the exposed area was ready for the first coat of primer. Afterwards I applied an even coat of white paint. Once that was dried, the last step was to finish the openers off with a sealing coat of clear coat. This locked in the paint and helps to protect the exposed sandblasted areas as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all this was a very fun and interesting project. It was a great way to learn how to work with both the plasma cutter and steel itself. The cost of the project is broken down as follows (calculated per bottle opener):

Sheet metal (Lowes)– $14.48, (~$0.02 per square inch.): for the ~$15 sq. in. piece ~$0.25

White Spray Paint (Lowes)– $6.48 per can: estimated ~$0.30

Grey Primer (Lowes)– $6.48 per can: estimated ~$0.30

Clearcoat (Lowes) – $6.48 per can: estimated ~$0.30

Total Cost per Bottle Opener: $1.05