Hi friends, this week’s plasma cutting assignment was my favorite so far. Just wanted to throw that out there. When we were learning how the plasma cutter worked it was pretty interesting to draw some parallels between the plasma cutter and laser cutter as well as the plasma cutter and arc-welder. In MECH 340 we learned how to use an arc welder, and the plasma cutter seemed to use some of the same technology but in a different application. I was also just fascinated by the machine itself. The precision with which it cut the Puget Sound’s bays and islands was quite impressive. Here is a link to a short video of the machine in action so that everyone can see it.
After prepping the Washington state file in Illustrator, then prepping in a few other programs, it was ready to be cut. Cutting really did not take long, probably about 2 or 3 minutes from the lead in cut to the last. Thee plasma cutter had a difficult time cutting Washington because of the details in the Puget Sound area. Ultimately it had to stop because it was left with no material in an area that it was meant to cut again. Still though, I was impressed with the level of detail of the overall product. Here is a photo of it straight out of the laser cutter.
When the state was fresh from the laser cutter the edges were very sharp and there was quite a bit of slag left on the back of it, so I had to begin the post processing phase. I first tried sanding the edges with sandpaper, but that took a long time so I switched to the dremel tool. I used the wire brush piece to get a lot of the slag off and make the edges smoother. Here is my state clamped in and ready to be sanded.
After using the dremel I then tried sandblasting the metal. This process made the edges much much smoother and also roughed up the surface a bit so that I could spray paint it.
After I washed off the excess dust and sand I was ready to start spray painting. I used the spraying techniques we learned in class, but the navy blue got angry at me at one point and somehow sprayed gobs of paint everywhere. It covered my hands paints, which was pretty unfortunate.
After applying the blue spray paint I sanded the paint down again. I wanted to make it look kind of rugged so I really roughed up the surface of the paint. Here is the post sanded paint Washington:
Next I applied a layer of gloss clear coat spray paint. Somehow it produced a really bizarre crackly texture on the surface. It looks almost like crocodile skin or something, so maybe it’s stylish, or trendy.. Here is a close up of that texture:
The final look of the state is pretty cool I think and I’m satisfied with how it turned out. This was a lengthy process from start to finish, but I enjoyed it. Here is the final product:
