Preparing for Highlights, 3

Further to my last blog, Preparing for Highlights, 2.
Yesterday, my first Ponoko laser cut pieces arrived and it was worth waiting for. After peeling off the protective sheet, that still showed the impact of the laser’s heat, clean clear pieces popped out of the cut Perspex sheet. I had used the clear 2mm thick Perspex material out of Ponoko’s material catalogue.

Peeling off the protective layer

The edges are clean and appear almost polished and do not show, as I had expected, some ‘burn’ marks. As Ponoko suggests in their ‘starter kit’ the dimensioning of interlocking pieces might need a bit of fine-tuning, I found that while having a good fit the slots I had designed have been a bit too wide. This will be easily fixed in Illustrator, as I have in mind to get more of the same parts cut in different colours for further variations of this lamp.

close up of the lamp

These parts form the ‘head’ of the desk-lamp for which I had already made all other parts. The assembly was straight forward as everything, the rapid prototyped and laser cut parts fitted very well together. I used sandpaper to make the surface of the parts opaque as the clear was ‘too’ transparent. Now the LED’s make the whole head light up.

Prototype put together

Opaque surfaces

I am very pleased about the straight forward way Ponoko’s system enables me to include precision cut pieces as part of my designs. Living in Australia made it a three week turn-around-time which was somewhat testing. But I already look forward to the next shipment with parts that will combine laser cutting with laser engraving. Ponoko has great instructional videos about this on their site.

Preparing for Highlights, 2

I just put together the prototype of a desk-lamp. This object uses polished stainless steel, ABS plastic (rapid prototyped parts), an aluminum tube coated with carbon fiber, laser-cut Perspex and 3 warm white 3 watt LEDs.

Desk lamp computer rendering

For the first time I will use a net based producer for part of the making process. Most of the lamp’s head part – the laser cut Perspex – will be produced by Ponoko . A clever (company) setup that laser cuts and laser engraves materials based on ones own design. Ponoko’s well working website makes it easy to get started. From selecting the materials to producing the right file formats for cutting and/or engraving all is explained in easy to follow steps. I am eagerly awaiting the first shipment of the 2mm thin cross-sections for the ‘reflector’ part of the lamp’s head.

After modeling the lamp shade as a ‘solid model’ first in CAD (formZ) I then sliced it into the cross-sections, these sections were then imported into Adobe Illustrator and saved out in the right format for Ponoko’s processes.

Cross-sections for laser cutting

Before uploading the file to be laser cut, I printed and cutout the Illustrator outlines and put together a mock-up of the lamp shape to see if I like the design and to get an idea if the pieces fit together.

paper mock-up of the lamp

Computer simulated lamp head

I also rendered a simulated view of the final head-piece as well as the whole desk lamp. I hope the final ‘real’ object will closely resemble this simulation.

prototype of desk lamp with paper shade

What I thought was a good idea – and all the work that went into an object trying to make it work.

Responding to a call to participate in the APM (Accredited Professional Member) exhibition by CraftACT with the title Interior Exterior I decided to make a light object. This show will open on Thursday 18 September at 6PM. Taking the dualism in the title as a starting point I used a warm light (1watt LED) representing the interior and a cold white LED as its counterpart. Both lights are directed towards each other and shinning onto a slightly curved transparent screen. See image of a few preliminary drawings for this object.

This screen is the membrane separating the inner from the outer. At this screen the different light qualities mix or fuse. Interestingly you can see the cold white on the ‘warm’ side of the screen and visa versa.

However when I started to model the components for a simulation on formZ (CAD) it became apparent that ‘all that stuff’ I needed to hold the elements in place was distracting form the pure, initial idea. What are now little cubes housing the LEDs were various (failed) designs going from bad to hideous. Even the cubes I have now are somewhat a compromise. Also the base-box which is capped by two alu plates and a white rapid prototyped frame feels like a necessary compromise to me. It contains the switch, driver and an additional LED (360 degree), which illuminates the base lightly from the inside.

First I wanted the top alu plate to be in mirror-polish but this particular alu piece I used had too many inclusions creating the occasional streak in the otherwise polished surface. To hide these streaks I used the new high tech Ink jet printer at the ANU School of Art , it can print on anything up to 40 mm thick with ink. The ink is then cured (baked on) with UV light. (One of our staff printed on a room door). The pattern I got printed onto the alu was derived from a piece of white sandpaper scanned in then the image was inverted and finally a ‘chrome’ filter in Photoshop applied. I usually avoid filters and effects at all cost but this pattern seemed to be able to run from the interior to the exterior section of the object without problems.

Now that this object is together and shines when switched on it has grown a little on me, but still it is an object that is neither a lamp nor a sculpture. Maybe, if I find the right (friendly) term for it it will settle into its place. Materials: Aluminium, ABS plastic, LEDs. Dimensions: 100 x 100 x 95 mm

New to ArtFlock

Since yesterday I am on ArtFlock thanks to Sharon and Amy who got me there in the first place.
I will be interested in the responses I might get to my works in this art and craft related (web2) space. The first work I uploaded is the DP bowl, this piece is part of a body of work that uses mathematical formulas I manipulated as their source. Despite a lot of technologies involved in creating this object there is a significant amount of manual work necessary to get this work finished, both on the keyboard as well as on the workbench. Tomorrow, 5th September 2008, will be the opening of Digitaler Formenschatz at the Galerie Handwerk in Munich, Germany. This exhibition intents to show the impact of new technologies on and the response to these by makers and the crafts in general. I have six related works on display at this show.