For this most recent ENGI 210 assignment, we were tasked to plasma cut and post-process two customized metal diamonds. Given that the plasma cutter is not as good with intricate lines as the laser cutter is, I opted for a simple design, featured in AI form in figure 1.
Figure 1. AI file of my customized diamond design
The plasma-cutting step of this process was relatively quick, especially compared to assignments that require a laser cutter instead. Since it was so quick, I opted to cut four diamonds, just in case something were to go wrong further down the line.
I went directly from plasma cutting to sand-blasting, which I later discovered was a mistake. Although the sand-blaster worked wonders in terms of a nice uniform, clean finish, it was not an instrument suited for removing bits of slag and other deformities from my pieces. So, after my first attempt with the sand blaster, I headed downstairs to file down the slag from my pieces. I used multiple different file shapes in order to experiment with their effects and to access inner corners of my pieces. Of course, the filing removed the nice finish left by the sand-blaster (figure 2), so I had to return to the wood-shop after filing for a second round of sand-blasting.
Figure 2. filing removes finish from sand-blaster
In the wood shop, I found two nice shades of blue, one light and one dark, so I decided to paint two of my pieces with one and two of my pieces with the other. I should have been more careful with where I left them to dry, though, because some dirt from the area outside the wood-shop ended up blowing into the wet paint and giving my pieces some undesirable texture in some spots. Regardless, the colors were nice, and I enjoy the simple design I ended up having. (see: final product in figure 3).
Figure 3. final, painted pieces
Cost: It costs about $30,000 a semester to go to Rice, and the Fall semester includes 70 instructional days, which means my time here is worth $428.60 a day. Including having to wait for paint to dry on two different faces, the whole process spanned about 2.5 days, which would be $857.00. A 6″ by 18″ aluminum sheet from Home Depot costs $4.47, and I’m assuming free access to the tools I used in the OEDK, so the grand total is $861.47. Per each of the four pieces, this is $215.37. That’s equivalent to about half a day at Rice University.
