BEIL0014: Digital Making

THE TRAY In this week’s lesson, we were being assessed on shaping and forming metal sheet into a small tray. Initially, we went with Martin, to mark out the template with the assistance of the laser cutting machine. This template allowed us to see which radius we would pursue i.e. the smaller the radius the harder shaping the sides and corner however the better the finish that is achieved.  CNC Machine making Template of Radius  Curving out the edges of the timber template on the sander After we had decided what radius we were going to attempt we got our two pieces of timber to make out templates. Once my partner and I had drawn our template on both pieces of timber, we went to the sander to carve out our template on piece of timber. Once we had our template of both pieces of timber, we had to shape our timber.   Marking out template on Metal Sheet In shaping our timber, we initially were going to use t...

The Torus In this week’s lesson, we were being assessed on shaping and forming metal sheet into a torus (otherwise known as a reverse curve). When we arrived in the design lab, we were presented with two different methods in sculpturing the metal sheet to form the reversed curve. We could choose which method we would engage when making our reverse curve. The two methods that were introduced to us where the following below: Mallet & Stump Daniel showed us the Mallet & Stump technique, which was the quicker way but wasn’t the best method in terms of the finish it produced. English Wheel Gabe showed us the English wheel technique, which was the slower but more accurate way of making our reverse curve. Gabe broke up the metal sheet into different sections and rolled each section through the English wheel until the reverse curve started to form. Initially, I started on my reverse curve, I started off with the mallet and stump technique. However, by going straight into t...

THE BOWL This week we were required to create and shape a bowl to the best of my abilities with the limited time and resources that were given to me. Before we commenced our bowl, Russell taught us the theoretical aspects of shaping of the bowl from the piece of metal sheet. The fundamental aspect that I took from this exercise, is that when you want to add area to the sheet of metal, it must move somewhere meaning that strategic hits with the nylon mallet were required in shaping the bowl. We started off at the laser printer, as we were required to laser cut our bowl and female radius gauge template. Martin had used the machine by putting these template within the printer and focusing on the material and utilising as little waste when he instructs the machine to make the cut on the material. Once we obtained these preciously accurate templates from the laser printer, we received our sheet of metal and drawn concentric circles on the metal sheet so that this would act as a be...