Plasma Cutting – Weezer Blue Album
Elena Nikolaychuk | 10/7/2024 – 11/15/2024
INTRO + PREP
For this assignment in BIOE 555, we practiced metal cutting and post-processing skills by creating two custom-designed metal diamonds using the plasma cutter. For my design, I chose to do a cut out of the 4 Weezer band members inspired by their Blue Album cover. I saw we had a perfect shade of blue in the powder-coating storage cabinet and had a vision (more on this later). I started this project by creating my design in Inkscape (Figure 2).
Figure 1. Reference for Design
Figure 2. Original .svg File Plan.
PLASMA CUTTING
I was able to plasma cut with a TA during the tutorial. The set-up was very well described by the instruction manual at the station and I was guided through this first trial of the machine. After my first try on the plasma cutter, I realized I needed to size up my vector cut because one of the band members was tragically missing a leg. Within the next couple of days, the plasma cutter broke down and I had to wait to recut my design.
PLASMA CUTTING (again)
A week or two and then some later, I was able to cut out my Weezer diamonds again. The plasma cutter was not officially announced to be back and running but lab assistants and TAs assured me that it would be fine to try and use it while it is available. This time around, I added a keyring hole to my original design and I noticed the machine had more difficulty making proper circle cuts. Also, now TWO band members were amputated. To my surprise, these errors were so consistent that the diamonds turned out nearly identical after some processing.
Figure 3. Updated Weezer Diamond Design File.
Figure 4. Plasma Cutting Process.
Figure 5. Freshly Cut Diamonds Prepared for Post-Processing.
POST-PROCESSING
To process my two diamonds, I started by removing the dross– debris from the plasma cutting process –with an angle grinder. I also used a metal file for big loose chunks and hard-to-reach spots. I loved using the angle grinder because of all of the sparks but it was so loud and it took me a while to clean everything off.
Figure 6. Diamond Clean from Majority of Dross after Using Angle Grinder.
Once the pieces were cleaned, I moved to the wet lab to sandblast the diamonds. This process made them look super sparkly and smooth, with a matte silver finish. I dusted off the pieces and set up the powder-coating step. I brought out the air compressor, hoses, and voltage box, and prepared the hanging rack by placing it on top of the sawhorses outside. My TA helped me make sure everything was appropriately hooked up and initiated and made me promise I would not shock myself by letting go of the ground switch as I was powder coating. I used a blue powder but had difficulty getting it to stick everywhere on the diamonds. I also had to pause and detach components frequently because the air compressor needed to be raised to the right pressure and my powder kept covering the alligator clip running charge to the rack (holding the diamonds on a paper clip) and sparking. I would turn off the power, clean off the clip, reattach the clip, and turn the voltage back on.
Figure 7. Sandblaster in the Wet Lab.
Figure 8. Results of Sandblasting Diamonds.
Figure 9. Powder-Coating Set Up and Materials.
Figure 10. Powder Paint Before Curing/Baking.
I then gently tried to move the rack to the glorified toaster oven in the wet lab. I set my diamonds to bake the paint at _____ degrees for ____ minutes. After taking the diamonds out of the oven, I saw that the blue was WAYYY darker now. It looked very glossy and mostly smooth– some parts of the powder were more translucent near the circle keychain hole. I really wanted that iconic blue so I set my sights on the vinyl cutter. I found out the font Weezer uses for their brand is Century Gothic font but had to settle for Arial because I had errors opening the file on the vinyl cutter software. After cutting out a few lines of the word “weezer”, I used transfer paper to remove my stickers from the vinyl roll. I centered the word on each diamond and carefully removed the transfer sheet. I found a spray can of the blue I was looking for (yay) but did not want to entirely cover the beautiful powder coat I did before. Thus, I just taped off a square outline around the word and a little triangle containing the keyhole. I then spray painted, waited for my pieces to dry, and removed the vinyl to reveal “weezer”.
Figure 11. Results of Powder-Coating Process.
Figure 12. Taped-Up Sections of Diamonds with Vinyl “Weezer” Applied and Prepared for Spray Painting.
Figure 13. Results of Spray Painting.
FINISHED PRODUCT + CLEAN SPACE
After removing my tape and vinyl, I was very happy with my product. The trademark Weezer Blue pops perfectly against the navy glossy background. I was sad that my band members weren’t cut exactly how I wanted but I will blame it on the plasma cutter troubles and machine settings error. After this is graded, I plan to have this on my keychain as some sort of back-up self-defense weapon. Realistically, these diamonds are too big for that so I will probably get annoyed and take it off.
Figure 14. Final Product of Weezer Diamonds.
Figure 15. Clean Work Space.
COST ANALYSIS
| Cost Type | Cost | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | Steel (⅛”x12”x12”) | $14.39 | OnlineMetals.com | 1 sheet | $14.39 |
| Powder for Powder Coating | $9.99 | Eastwood Company | 1 container | $9.99 | |
| Vinyl | $7.99 | Amazon.com | 1 roll | $7.99 | |
| Tools*** | Angle Grinder | $129.30 | Grainger.com | 1 unit | $129.30 |
| Metal File | $16.99 | Amazon.com | $16.99 | ||
| Air Compressor | $99.99 | Lowes.com | 1 unit | $99.99 | |
| Powder Coating Gun & Voltage Box | $99.97 | Eastwood Company | 1 set | $99.97 | |
| Sand Blaster | $599.97 | Eastwood Company | 1 unit | $599.97 | |
| Vinyl Cutter | $260.99 | Amazon – VEVOR | 1 unit | $260.99 | |
| Labor | Metal Processing Operator | $34/hour | ZipRecruiter | 3 hours | $136 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | Included in Operator Rate | – | 1 hour | ||
| Overhead | Facility Cost (Machine Time) | – | – | 2 hours | – |
| Quality Control | Included in Operator Rate | – | 30 mins | $17 | |
| Design | Engineering and Development (Adobe Illustration) | $29/hour | ZipRecruiter | 1 hour | $29 |
| Iterations | – | Self | 3 trials (different stages of process) | – | |
| Misc. | Waste and Scrap | – | Self | – | – |
Total without Purchasing Equipment (provided by OEDK): $214.37
Total Starting from Scratch & Outsourcing: $1,421.58
SUMMARY
I split up the cost analysis into two final totals: one implying that tools are provided through the OEDK and one for if tools are purchased for the project. The resulting costs are about $215 and $1,422 respectively. Access to equipment adds approximately $1,207 to the material and labor costs of making customized steel diamonds similar to the ones featured in my blog.
Thank you!!! ~ пока пока 🙂
