Hi, this week in ENGI 210 we were tasked with creating a metal piece using the plasma cutter. Initially I was slightly scared because metalworking looked so “dangerous” with flying sparks and sharp blades, however a part of me felt very excited to overcome this fear I had. Immediately, the idea that came to my head was to make a disco ball out of the diamond file we were given, and getting creative with how the disco ball reflects light by playing the inate reflectiveness of metal.

    

As shown in the diagram, the lightest parts of the disco ball represents the shiny parts, the darker squares would be mattified using the sandblaster and the white squares would be cut out, hence representing the darkest part of a disco ball.

Now that I had a plan, it was time to execute it. Operating the plasma cutter turned out to be easier than I initially thought. And it went very smoothly after I had made appropriate corrections to my file. Leaving me with the two pieces below

The steel I used was clearly oxidized and now thanks to the plasma cutter covered in dross : (.  I used the angle grinder to grind it all away.

While angle grinding made it look much better, I still wanted the shiny parts to be more reflective. So I spent the next hour (yes that’s how committed I was :D) sanding the metal by hand to 3000 grit, using wet sanding by the time I reached 1000 grit. For some reason, I couldn’t get some scratches out and this contributed to it not being as polished as I wanted it in the end. I think this is in part due to poor angle grinding technique causing deep scratches in the metal, my lack of thoroughness because I was so tired of sanding (and rightfully so! I underestimated how tiring it would be), and I might have gotten better results with a polish, but again the sanding wore me out a whole lot.  However, it still looked really good.

Next I made a vinyl stencil, and covered the parts I wanted to remain reflective…

then hit it with the sandblaster ! (this was my favorite part) And took off the stencil…

And Voila! My metal disco balls.! If you zoom in, you can see those pesky scratches which was really upsetting considering how long I spent on the project and messes with the shininess of the steel. However it still created a really cool effect and is exactly what I wanted to achiEve visually.

Those pesky scratches, were no more infuriating however than the can of Clear Gloss Spray Paint that eliminated the shine completely! I mean come on, and to think I was counting on the clear coat to help reduce the appearance of the scratches but then it didn’t and you can still see the scratches ! 😀 Great!

Despite all the pitfalls, and scratches. This project has got to be one of my favorites in this class, I had a completely “original” vision and brought it to life using the skills I’m learning from this class from start to finish. If you look at my first blog post that’s exactly what I’ve always wanted to be able to do.

Yay!

 

Cost breakdown

Item Price Qty Cost

1/4 in Sheet of Steel  10.40/288in^2 10in^2 $0.38

Plasma Cutter Rental $184/day 30min $4

Sandblaster Rental $200/day 30min $4

Vinyl Cutter Rental $25/day 30 min $0.50

Labor $15/hr 6hrs $90

Total Cost $98.88