A QUICK PREVIEW
Here is a sneak peak at the finished product! Keep reading to learn more about the processing and post-processing of this family of giraffes.
HOW DID YOU CAME BACK SO FAST THIS TIME?
That’s right. I’m back just about a week later with another project to throw your way. Here are some updates for those who care: (1) there is a newer, faster, stronger, better laser cutter I am now allowed to use! Hopefully I can work with this one instead of against it. (2) I survived my first two exams of the semester! Now I can focus all my attention on ENGI 210 of course.
Now let’s get into a brand new project featuring the water jet cutter!
STARTING WITH A SKETCH (AGAIN)
Just as I started my laser cutting project with a sketch, this project too began with a drawing of what I wanted the final product to look like. Stuck in a bit of a creative block, I went with the always reliable animal motif! To spice things up a little, I drew out a mother giraffe and her calf for some wholesome animal kingdom action.
Here is what the final piece should look like at the end.
HOw powerful can water be?
With the idea phase done, it is on to the creating. First, I needed to cut the silhouettes out of metal on the water jet cutter. The water jet cutter works similarly to the laser cutter; it traces out imported vector shapes to cut all the way through the material. Unlike the laser cutter, the water jet cutter uses a high pressure sand-and-water mixture. This is what gives it the power to cut through metal! So I generated my vector shapes and let the laser cutter work its magic.
The simplified vector shapes sent to the water jet cutter.
The water jet cutter cutting out my shapes.
The pieces pulled from the laser cutter. My first attempt did not leave enough space for the top corner, so I would have to cut again.
Ooh! Shiny…
So it turns out that after I cut my material, there was still an entire post-processing procedure I had to follow to remove any artifacts of manufacturing and to make my pieces look beautiful. First up was the mother giraffe. I first smoothed out the surface with a wire brush, then sanded the piece with 600 grit sand paper to make it shiny, and finally had Joe the Legend buffer out the scratches from the sand paper on the buffer wheel in the machine shop. The result was a nicely reflective surface on my mother giraffe.
The result of a wire brush, some 600 grit sand paper, and a buffer wheel.
UUH… STICKY?
With my mother giraffe’s surface all beautified, it was time to add in some decorations! I used the vinyl cutter (which also traces vector shapes this time with a knife) to cut out some stickers for this power lady. I chose a matte black color to contrast nicely with the reflective metal.
My original vector shapes.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how troublesome all those tiny little stickers were going to be. I used a transfer paper to transfer the stickers from the vinyl sheet to the metal, but the stickers stayed stuck to the transfer paper and wouldn’t stick the metal! It took a lot of fingernail action to get every sticker in its correct place. But the results were definitely worth it.
The final result with all stickers in their proper places.
GRAFFITI BUT LEGAL
Mom is complete! Now it’s on to her calf. I thought it would be fun since the mother giraffe was shiny metal and matte black for the calf to have matte metal and shiny black. My first step was to prep this bad boy for spray painting. I wire brushed and sanded with 600 grit sandpaper the surface of this metal as well. Then I busted out the spray paint. Then I sanded. Then I painted. Then I sanded and painted again. (That’s three coats for those who are counting). I learned two main things using spray paint: (1) my piece needed to be cleaned of oils or I would get antibubbles where the paint wouldn’t stick, and (2) I was almost always holding the can too close to my piece. Back it up now y’all. But by that third coat, I had the hang of things and a pretty evenly (if I do say so myself) painted calf.
I count it as graffiti at least.
THE SAND STRIKES BACK
Now that I had the black I wanted for the borders, it was time to remove all the extra paint on the interior. First I had to protect the paint I did want to keep. I cut out some more vinyl stickers (this time in blue!) and covered the border.
The blue stickers will protect the paint during sand blasting.
Then it was on to sand blasting. As I learned with the water jet cutter, sand can be powerful stuff. I put my piece into the sand blaster chamber and went at it with the sand-filled air hose until all the visible paint was removed. Then I removed my piece and took off the vinyl stickers. This was a honestly bit of an experiment as I had no idea how well it would work. Luckily for time budgeting, the paint was well protected and the lines came out incredibly crisp.
The end result was a shiny spray paint border and a matte metal interior.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Now I had both a completed mother giraffe and a complete calf! But the thing about post-processing and finishing is that it’s easy to accidentally produce a cool effect. So to prove that every single decision I made was incredibly intentional, I made a second copy as identical to the first as I could get it. Commence second battle with tiny stickers. Now I have a wonderful family of giraffes and the parents/calfs are interchangeable. I guess mom and dad can swap children when the one they’re watching annoys them too much.
The final result and the other final result.
I am overall incredibly satisfied with how my pieces came out, but now it’s time to figure out just how much this thing cost me.
I thought you said it ain’t about the money
I did say that. But we’re going to crunch the numbers anyways.
So that’s a $413.24 set of steel diamonds. Although $303.99 of that was buying a vinyl cutter since I could not find a place to rent one. So it was closer to a $109.25 set of steel diamonds with a tip to pay a really awesome friend or Rice alumni who owns a vinyl cutter.
Also, shout out once more to Joe the Legend himself for helping Rice students meet their machine shop needs since the beginning of time!
And that’s all she wrote guys! With pieces post-processed and costs calculated, it’s onto the next project. Catch you next time with a monumental moving motion machine . . .
