The assignment was to create a collage of Da Vinci’s sketches that relate to a tool of our choosing. I picked the Myford ML7 metal lathe as my tool of choice and Da Vinci’s sketches of a spinning wheel device and water-powered, gear-driven machine for manufacturing cannon barrels. The spinning relates to the lathe and the other is basically a giant water-powered metal lathe.
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Been a while since I’ve done this much CAD. I need to get my chops back.
Glass Tutorials
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My first generative piece, 3 by 3.
A series of three turned plywood forms, three spun metal shapes formed over the plywood, and three ice pieces cast inside the spun metal forms. One shape could not be made without the previous shape.
Description:
The CNC Knife is a plotter with a multi-functional tool head that moves along the X and Y planes for mechanized knife cutting, creasing, and perforation operations. CAD programs control the path of the tool head above flat stock material, which is placed below on the cutting bed held in place by a vacuum.
The first assignment for the Da Vinci Code was to copy a page from the Da Vinci notebooks. Designs for chariots and war weapons to be exact.
A pen and ink drawing with some water color shading.
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Feeling somewhat daunted by the endless amount of data out there, I decided to think sculpture first and find data that would work with the object.
The Richest Robot
The concept: Sculpt a robot toy made of parts of all of the top-grossing movies featuring a robot. The head would be made of the highest grossing robot, the torso the next highest, the arms the next two, and so on down the body.
3-in-3 (or 4-in-4 for some) is a great way to start the semester, really gets you back in the swing of things.
Day 1: Turning Laser Cut Parts
I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now. The goal was to cut a bunch of “combs” from scrap 1/4″ ply on the laser cutter, glue them together, then turn the glue-up on the lathe.
The Winter Show was incredible (so tired), my only problem, I didn’t get to see any of the other projects. My piece demoed pretty well. On the second day I blew a solenoid with an hour to go, other than that, not too many hiccups.
Kids seemed to really like the piece, and I got a lot of comments on how “musical” it is. If it’s an instrument, it has five of the same notes. Had some comments about adding lights or tones. Adding something to the ends of the pendulums, maybe flags, knives, or fire. Don’t know if that will happen, but I’d like to see the piece be a little bigger.
The setup for the show:
A bunch of character sketches for our animation.
The Whole Gang
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Amelia and I finished our animation. The Adventures of Mister Reach is the intro to an typical 80′s Saturday morning cartoon. Reach is a Victorian era super hero, the man with a reach of a 1,000 gentlemen. Mr. Reach has incredibly long arms and does some pretty mundane things with them.
