Author Archives: Daniel, Bret

Neon Italy

Posted on by Daniel, Bret

Another neon project from Peter Merrick.

Background on this piece. This is the Italy “boot” in neon mounted to Walnut with engraved text. It is to commemorate a family vacation I took to Italy this year with the engraved text coming from sayings that we picked up from the trip.

Some detail on the process. The bending of the glass tube took roughly 15 hours over the course of a week. The Walnut was purchased rough, planed and jointed at the makerspace to get the boards square, and glued up into a panel. The panel was then cut down to size and run through the drum sander to even out any imperfections from the glue up. The engraved text was designed using inkscape and imported into CorelDraw for printing on “Katy Perry”, the 30W laser cutter. This panel was at the max cutting area for Katy Perry at 32″ x 18″. The cut took nearly 6 hours to complete. A box was constructed for the back of the panel to be used for concealing the electronics as well as a mounting point for the French cleat.

Total time to complete this piece was roughly 50 hours over the span of 2 weeks. Total material cost including glass, transformer, wood, stain, filling the tube with neon gas, and time on the laser cutter was roughly $200.

Neon Milwaukee Flag

Posted on by Daniel, Bret

Another Beginning Neon project has been completed by member Peter Merrick.  This project was a bit complex as there is only 1 continuous tube that weaves in and out of the wood “pallet-like” substructure.  In addition to the complexity, beginners have challenges learning to use phosphor-coated glass and projects with symmetry.  Peter was able to overcome these obstacles and create something awesome at the Norwich neon space :)

Beginning Neon – Paper Clip project

Posted on by Daniel, Bret

As we continue to build out the Norwich glass area, our pilot neon class is starting to reveal merit from the pomp and toils of setting up a new area space.  A special thanks to Rosie and Jake for their continued  contribution in building the neon area.

Pictured are 2 paperclips created by member Robert S.  These were constructed from 10mm tubing.  The red is filled with Neon gas, and the blue is a mixture of Argon and Mercury.  The next step in the process is to build a support structure/enclosure to mount the paperclips.  Robert intends to utilize his skills in the woodshop area to create a wood base support structure for the paperclip sculpture.

A great example of members utilizing multiple areas and disciplines to accomplish their project goals :)

The “Neon Crew” congregates on Wednesdays from ~4:30-7:00pm, stop by and learn more.

Woodblock Prints

Posted on by Daniel, Bret

Occasionally back in the day,  I would breakout the linoleum blocks and the speedball cutting tools, and carve out a design to make block prints.  My experience in making prints spans from potato carvings to cardboard stencils, linoleum and wood blocks.  As designs became larger, complex, and multi-color, the time it would take to carve the block plates, made finishing a project difficult at best.

Then, the laser cutter…..

Using the adobe suite of products I created two black and white drawings to be translated to wood blocks.

rooster_redPlate rooster_BlackPlate

Unlike traditional transfer/carving methods, I decided to utilize the 60W laser to etch the images into poplar wood vs. carving.  I chose poplar for its hardness and ability not to warp as easy as pine or other softer woods.  60W laser setting was 100 power, 60%speed, 500 PPI

The image below is a 5″x7″ laser cut of the black plate of the rooster image.

image

Top-Left is the black plate for the left facing rooster.  Bottom-left is the red plate for the left facing, top-right – red plate, bottom right – black plate

image (1)

The following image shows the red left-facing plate printed, and the black plate inked up and ready to be printed

image (2)

The first red/black rooster print, along side the right facing black print.

image (3) image (5)

And of course, if you do one, you have to do many.

Multiprint

Rooster

Posted on by Daniel, Bret

 

IMG_2028

The rooster head above was cast in aluminum at the space on July 25th.  Steps of the process are outlined below.

First, carve rooster out of plasticine modeling clay.  The clay comes in many forms and can be purchased at most art stores

IMG_1992

 

Next, make a 2 part mold.  The left image shows the plasticine rooster in a bed of sand, dusted with parting compound.  (parting compound helps separate the 2 parts to remove the clay core)

I then mixed up a batch of resin bonded sand (90 Mesh sand, resin and catalyst) and covered the clay core (about 2 inches high)

The right image shows the cured resin bonded sand with the clay core still in place.  I re-dusted with parting compound and mixed another batch of sand.  Note the 3 dimples that were added to help “key” the mold when reassembling.

IMG_1993 IMG_1994 

After the second batch of sand cured (24 hrs) I split the mold apart revealing the open mold on the left and the clay core in place on the right.  Removing the clay, you can see the 2 halves of the mold ready to be reassembled for casting.  Note the “key” locations on the right image.

The pour hole (sprue) that was carved into the middle of the neck for pouring the metal, is not shown.

IMG_2006 IMG_2007

After pouring the metal, allowing some cool time, you can see the mold broken apart in the left image.  Remove the pour sprue, and clean up the flashing (seen in the right image) and with a little polishing, its good to go.

IMG_2012 IMG_2013

I encourage everyone to try it out!