Ozzie Pants

[ozzie-pants]

Progress has been really slow this summer. We’ve had a lot of guests over to stay, we’re currently in the process of finding new roommates, it’s been con season and... well, I’ve been feeling kind of lazy recently. I also keep breaking out into rashes every time I try to work on this project (turns out I’m super allergic to 2 part resins), so I’ve had a hard time motivating myself to finish. My boyfriend also started working for a professional prop shop back in the fall, and I’ve learned a lot from his projects since.  Mostly, that it’s almost impossible to get a bubble-free cast using a 2 part mold without pressure casting.  So basically what this means is that I am going to have to 3D print the gem shapes, smooth them out, mold them, make a resin cast, polish that initial cast, mold *another* version and then use that to pressure cast the gems. (Lucky for me, I have a really good teacher around to help me figure some of this stuff out.) Anyway, I think it’ll be worth it! I just need to get off my butt and get to work.

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Each portion of the key takes about a day to paint and dry, so progress has been slow.  Next up: finishing paint on the main body, re-making the side pieces without LEDs in them, adding the gems, possibly adding detail to the bottom of the handle -- and weathering, of course!

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Also, a quick side-by-side comparison of the effects of 400 (foreground) and 1000 (background) grit sandpaper on ABS plastic sealed with XTC3D.

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I ran into some problems while casting the gems for the side pieces. I was hoping to drill a core into the resin gems so that they could be placed over the LEDs and sealed with more resin. However, the drilling process didn’t work as anticipated because I don’t have the proper equipment, and there ended up being too many streaks inside the gems for the light to get through. So right now I’m waiting on some flat top LEDs from China. I’ll have to re make the side parts, but fortunately they’re small and should only take a day or two. In the meantime I’ve decided to at least finish one gate key without any electronics in it to test out the painting process.

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Progress: painting and prepping pieces to be assembled.

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A week of rashes all over my body has been a pretty good lesson in exposure to new chemicals and how much research I should probably do before dousing my skin in epoxy resin. Oops. 

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Also, just a very quick video of how the inductive coil works! As the top coil (attached to the battery) is moved further away from the bottom coil (attached to the LED) the current through the LED lowers and the light dims. It’s a pretty simple mechanic but it’s neat to actually see it in action.

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A few in between shots. 1) Left: The 3D model (pre-molding) wet sanded down with 400 grit paper. 2) Right: The raw cast of the model using Smooth-Cast 305 resin. 

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It’s three weeks to final exams at my school, so my prop-work time has been pretty limited (read: non-existent). Some updates on the planters: the tinting process made the plexiglass shrink, so I need to re-start on the laser cutting process (this time dye first, *then* cut). Also, as a side note, I’ll be doing this again with a material that *doesn’t* contain chlorine so I don’t make chlorine gas when I cut it!

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Also, some updates to the planter project (which was originally intended to just be an introduction to laser cutting and ended up teaching me a lot about wood working instead)! From start to finish: Attempt #1 --> Patterning/cutting out panels of plexiglass by hand, then sanding down the edges (also entirely by hand -- what a bad idea that was, haha). Attempt #2 --> Using laser cut parts + sanding tools. I added the wooden border because there was no simple way to get a 31.75 degree angled cut into the edges of the plastic using the tools at the maker space.  Next step: painting the borders, tinting the plexiglass panels and attaching everything together. One is going to be a planter and the other will be a lamp!

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Hey! Sorry -- I am extremely backlogged on posts, so there might be a few in rapid succession while I get caught up. Some things shown here: Image 1: Figured out how to model the base of the handle by tracing the reference image out onto a plastic bag which I then taped to the computer monitor. I was then able to draw a vector of the image onto the plane and revolve it 360 degrees to get that particular shape. Image 2: Print (#6/8) in progress at the makerspace. It was printed with 0.75 mm ABS from Micro Center. Image 3: Adding some electronics to the gate key. Since I didn’t want to include any direct power source to this project, I decided to add an inductive coil (5 v) which can be purchased from Adafruit for ~$10. Basically what this does is lets the gate key be powered ‘wirelessly’ via an external battery pack. Every time I hold the key up to a transmitting coil it will light up. (Videos to come)

[ozzie-pants]

I ran into some trouble modeling the base of the gate key, so instead here are some pics of what I’ve been working on in the mean time. (Part one of a set of platonic-solid-shaped planters!) I’ve printed about 6 or 7 versions of the gate key, but I keep finding things to tweak each time, so they’re just piling up in the closet for now. Got some pretty cool electronic parts from adafruit to add to it, though, so I’m *hoping* it’ll work the way I want it to. (We’ll see!)

[ozzie-pants]

Some updates on the helmet. I’ve been playing around with the 123D suite to see if I can make a 3D model of the helmet for 3D printing. No success with the capture program, but it was really fun to see my real life object come partially to life on my computer screen. (If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend it -- it’s free!) The first image is an update shot of the helmet model in Blender with a rough approximation of my head as reference added in. I’ve tweaked the design to fit more snugly around the forehead, so all that’s left at this point is adding details and prepping it for printing.

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Some gate key progress on 123D Design! It still needs some tweaking in spots to get the proportions right, but I’m hoping to have this ready by Wednesday night to print after our introductory class.

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Had a spare hour today so I decided to give tinkercad a try. Considering that it’s free and I learned how to use it in under 5 minutes, I think it’s a pretty nice app. Since I’ll be printing it, though, I’m going to give 123Design a shot to see if I can get the poly count higher. Also, my lease is about to expire and I’ll be moving closer to the maker space in my city within the next month; I don’t want to promise any updates just yet but now that I’ll have access to better tools and work space, I might have some more progress in the upcoming months. (fingers crossed, anyway!)

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“You repaired me. Now it’s my turn to help you.” (Model by my incredibly talented sister, Kalia (aka fankiwi!))

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This is kind of a gratuitous selfie (sorry), but the wig came in while I was away on break and I’m pretty happy with the color! (It’s much closer than I was getting with dye.) Next step: going through training at the makerspace at my school and then 3D printing some parts for the helmet and hammer.