My original idea was inspired by the giraffe piece shown in class where the giraffe’s head was poking out of the diamond frame to give the illusion that it was coming out of the diamond. I intended to do the same with a plane, which can be seen in my original design here.
However, the plasma cutter software was having issues with the original file, so Kate suggested I get rid of the small cuts and the outside line (the original diamond line) as they were confusing the software. Unfortunately this still did not satisfy the software because as it turns out while making the ai. file I had doubled some lines which was really confusing the software. Once this was remedied, the plasma cutter was able to cut out the design with small imperfections around the small female cuts.
Note, it is still clearly a plane at this time.
Note, it is still clearly a plane at this time.
Once the piece was cut out, I used the angle grinder to clean up the piece. Pictured below is a before and after of angle-grinding. It took me quite a while to figure out how to be exact with the angle grinder and how much pressure to apply but I think I got it towards the end.
The angle grinder left a jagged edge so I used a metal file to smooth that out.
After the edges were sorted I used the sand blaster to smooth the surface of metal and create a microscopic peaks for the powder coat to stick to.
I selected a blue powder coat. I was trying to avoid the candy textured ones and find one that was matte but all the bottles looked identical so I took my chances. When powder coating I noticed there was a section of my piece that the powder was not sticking to. I considered that maybe powder got on the alligator clip and was limiting the current but cleaning that had no effect. It also seemed that I was too close to the piece and the compressed air was blowing the powder off. Moving back worked for a bit but it was not spraying a consistent coat, and made it look worse. I ended up deciding that the gradient was an artistic choice and moved it into the oven.
I forgot to take a picture of the actual powder coat setup but you can see my cleaned workspace below.
Once it came out of the oven I realized that picking blue may have been a mistake. While the powder I originally picked was sky blue, which I thought appropriate for a plane, the baked result was more of an ocean blue. Giving the appearance that the planes were really sharks. While this effect was certainly unintended, I don’t mind them as sharks either.
Cost estimate:
– Labor: 4 hours at $10/hour = $40.
– Galvanized steel sheet = $15.93
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-24-in-x-36-in-Galvanized-Steel-Flat-Sheet-GFS24X361P/202191776
– Powder for powder coating = $9.7
https://www.autotoolworld.com/Eastwood-10252K-Hotcoat-Powder-Coat-Standard-Color-Sample-Kit_p_310365.html
– Tools (sandblaster, file, air compressor, angle grinder) from OEDK = free
Total = $65.63
