Workshop Spider part 3 : πΈπΈπΈ Week 3
Today was mainly focusing on the legs and any final touches for next week. In this post, I shall be commenting on if I had any problems with the constructions and how I made each part. I shall also be talking about health and safety as well as confidence in the machinery.
Using the design worksheet, I knew that I wanted the longs to be quite long. I also knew that the legs would have to be very sturdy since it would have to be carrying the weight of the giant face. So I decided to pick the widest rods I could find for my project. Since the regular cutters were going to be hard to cut with - I used the guillotine. I cut the first one into something that I was happy with and then used it as a guideline for the rest. I would line it up and then remove it so I wasn't cutting two at the same time. Just using it for a guideline. The first image shows the long ones being prepared and the second image is of all the pieces. I also cut the small ones which are camouflaging into my hand. After I had measured them up to my design to check the lengths again I started to spot weld them. When measuring them, I found that a 90' angle would work the best so for each one, I tried to get them into a 90' angle.
The third image is of the first one which I did. I am very happy with it but since it didn't match the others I placed it under again since I wanted the black spot and colour change.
Health and safety for the guillotine :
Keep your fingers out of the way
Wear glasses in the unlikely even that something will fling up into your eyes
Do not cut two pieces of metal at the same time
The further up the handle you place your hand - the easier
Have a bit of common sense - if you use the machine right then there should be no issues.
I took the first one and layered it next to the others for the picture. You can also see the black colour change where I had heated it up again in order for it to be similar to the others.
In the second image, I had done a few of the legs and was wondering on how I was going to attach them. I knew that I wanted two of them to be a bit more out in the front. In the end, I had designed the third one to hold them all together. Then the face could be placed on top. It was suggested that instead of having each pair separate, that I run two rods in-between them in order to connect all rods so they aren't just free floating. And so the spider has a base to go upon.
In the first image, I was looking underneath and assessing whether or not, I could use the little point on the bottom as a holder and lodge it underneath one of the pairs of legs so that the head would be much more stable. The second photo is the gradual even more pairs of legs showing. It was very heard to get the M shape right since the shape of the M also made the legs either long or shorter or wider or indeed thinner. It was very hard but I made a solution to that later on.
I did have to have a bit of help with the legs and bars situation since I found it very hard to position them. Getting three on was very easy but I the fourth was so hard. I think next time I would do them in order but I wanted to get equal spacing so the easiest way for that to happen was if I did the front and back then fill in the middle. It was also hard since one the front part is over the bar when the back bit was under. The technician to which I sadly can't remember the name to helped me. The second round that I needed help with Kyrstie helped me since one of the legs broke. To be honest, I was seeing how far I could get them in order to get the spider to come on straight thus the constant fixing.
Once all four pairs of legs were attached, I adjusted them to get the to the desired angle. There is one particular leg which was quite wonky so I broke it and repaired to be be a slightly better angle. The second photo was when I balanced the main base on. You can also see a smaller face. In the previous post, I had mentioned that I might do this or another idea which I can't remember at this point in time. I think I made this little head in the week prior since the indentations bounced back quite a bit. I had room for the eye sockets which were indented but they weren't as exaggerated at this point in time sadly. But we digress. In the corner of the last photo, you can see the hot glue gun.
Health and safety for the hot glue gun :
Have common sense - it is hot so be careful with your fingers
The longer it has been left on for, the hotter - so do not leave it on for a very long time e.g. overnight.
Be careful when you add another stick since there can be a bit push of glue which might catch you off guard
Some glue guns like this one was stiff - that impacts a lot of things
As mentioned prior, hot glue. I used the hot glue for a number of things which could be hidden. I used it for attaching the legs onto the base since I lodged the plastic blob in and it was secure - the hot glue made it much more secure. I also used it to attach the head to the face. I also made little eyeball which consist of me just gluing inside the eye socket to make them stand out.
The first image indicated how close some aspects of the metal were to the clay. Thus the wonky fit since I didn't want to damage anything. I also glued the head on wonky like it was looking at something so the whole thing wouldn't seem out of place. It isn't seen here but I also glued in the smaller piercings onto the face as well as the boots onto the legs.
So at this point, I was mostly done but I wanted to experiment one last time. Since not all of the legs touched the ground, I made some little boots for a few of the legs . The experiment was being to bake them since the foam clay would have shrunk a little bit. But that would be in the next post.
