For our fith assignment, the plasma cutting, we had to work in partners; format and plasma cut the shape of the state we first lived in the US and then post process it.
For the ones that doesn’t know, plasma cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials, typically metals, by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma.
At first I have decided to cut Washington D.C., where I lived 3 months in my cousin’s house, but I couldn’t find the file. So I decided to cut Texas, where I will be living for almost an entire year.
I decided to register my process according to the steps I have taken to accomplish this assignment:
- Formatting and Cutting:
This was by far the most stressful and frustrating part of the assignment. I took us almost 3 hours to format Texas. Something was wrong with the file given to us and whenever we tried to create a cutting path using the “Torchmate” software the program would crash and the computer freeze.
To check if the problem was really with the Texas file, me and Lucas decided to cut Colorado, and yes, the problem was with Texas…
After several tries we were given a different file by Dr. Wettergreen and we could finally get it formatted. After that cutting was pretty easy:
2. Filing and Sanding:
To remove all the sludge, I used a file and a clamp to safely fix the metal to the table. Removing it was very easy and I didn’t have any problem with it.
To sand the surface and make it shiny I decided to use sand paper. But the process was too time consuming and it didn’t give me he result I was expecting. It also made my hands black with all the dust produced:
Then I decided to use the sandblaster. But I didn’t know how to use it very well and it also didn’t give me the result I was expecting…
Mine fine effort was using the drill to sand my Texas surface and it finally gave me the shiny I wanted:
3. Painting and Coating:For the scary painting I decided to use a chalkboard black paint, so I could use my Texas as a little notepad. I painted it in total 8 times, 4 each side:
- After the first painting on both sides, I slightly sanded them and painted again;
- After the second painting on both sides again, slightly sanded and painted black on the front and applied a gloss coating on the back for extra protection;
- The result of the coating was disappointing. It dripped on the front side and had some dust stuck to it, so I had to sand both sides and apply the coating first then the paint second;
- After the 4 painting / coating step these were the results:
I was very satisfied with how it was looking, the back part was really smooth and the front part had a really cool matte affect. I was also happy that I learned how to prepared files to be laser cut and how to operate the equipment!
Ps.: Unfortunately I didn’t find and chalk in the OEDK to write something on my cool Texas notepad.
I hope you have liked my final product and I see you next on the sixth assignment: CNC Machining (I have no idea what that is…).
