Tag Archive for: wood

Laserkerf and Mathophilia

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Every cutting tool has a kerf — the amount of material that the tool itself removes in the cutting process. With a table saw, it tends to be large, like 1/8″. The laser-cutter has a small — but significant kerf.

I cut a 1/4″ notch and then used the calipers to determine that I have a 2/100″ kerf when cutting 3/8″ material at 8/100/500 (speed/power/frequency).

I then cut a 1/4″ groove and several notched cutouts, increasing the amount of material by incremental values. At 4/100″, (double the .02 measurement), the fit is perfect. 3/100″ is a little loose and 5/100″ won’t fit.

I’m glad I was a high-school mathlete.

kerf

3D Duchamp Chess Pieces

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For the Playing Duchamp project, I made custom 3D chess pieces to resemble Duchamp’s hard-carved originals.

The 3D-rendered versions (designed by Daisuke Imai):

chess_render_WHITE

In the Playing Duchamp project, I have reprogrammed a chess computer to play like Marcel Duchamp, which anyone can play online.

chess_render_BLACK

And the only documentation of the original set:

duchamp_set_ref_image

At this point, I’m considering sending them to the 3D printer to make them real.

By the way, if you are looking for custom 3D work, I’d highly recommend working with Daisuke.

01SJ Day 6: Panels and Special Guests

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Hello Gift Horse fans! The days at the Garage are pleasantly blurring together. Artists everywhere are building their projects and we are stage center in the construction zone.

Today was a divide-and-conquer kind of day. While Victoria was fitting the chest panels (don’t they look good), I was busy with the lasercutter and figuring out how to put score lines into the small virus sculptures. After two hours, I had handfuls of the next round of viruses, including Koobface, Dengue Fever, The Andromeda Strain and ILOVEYOU for workshops this weekend.

Here, we see a glimpse of what the Trojan Horse will look like when fully-paneled. Now that the dust has literally settled, we are beginning to clad the horse.

horse_panels

We had a special guest stop by, Rudy Rucker, science fiction writer and thinker. He appropriately worked on a Snow Crash virus along with his friend, Chris.

rudy_assembling

Here is his interpretation of Snow Crash. Take that, Neal Stephenson!
rudy_snowcrash

Other visitors helped build paper sculptures as well. Pictured here are Diane and Sally, whom we caught in conversation fulfilling one of our goals to gather strangers together in real space.

virus_workshops

Finally, Ken Gregory gave us a demonstration of his impressive whip-cracking skills. He will make an excellent slavemaster for the Green Prix parade, exhorting the Greek Warriors to push the horse down the streets.

ken_whipping

Gift Horse-in-progress

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After the first month, we are 31% funded on the 13-foot-high Gift Horse for the 01SJ Biennial. A good initial run, but its starting to feel a little tight, so please consider a Kickstarter donation to the Gift Horse project.

gift_horse_3d

We have been busy working on the internal structure and final models in Sketchup. The skeleton proved to be an advanced wood project since the exterior printed digital panels (see model above) will be exactly fitted to make it look like giant-sized 3D model of a horse.

Working with our friend, Rob Bell, we have come up with this preliminary Sketchup design, which will be computer-cut with his ShopBot. This awesome piece of machinery, along with his expert skills, takes the 3D files and makes exactly the shape we need from a sheets of 4×8 wood.

TroHo_partial_sketchup

We’re trying to build this as sustainably as possible with recycled wood and a bioboard cladding. This makes it more expensive, so again, please consider a donation to help us complete this project.

Finally, it will be stuffed full of viruses. Paper viruses, that is.

gift_horse_virus