When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Flying machine delivered.

Sunday was a full bore day at the shop for Jody and I. We wrapped it up at around 2 am Monday. We weren't quite done, but the truck wasn't going to arrive until 1 pm on Monday so we headed home for some sleep. Albeit a short sleep! We got the wings finished up by 11 am, and they looked great when all spread out.


Sunday also saw the build of the scale model. The model is supposed to be a predecessor to the large one.
I had drawn all the parts Saturday night in order to cut them on Sunday. A fairly simple model that really only took a couple of hours to cut, assemble and paint. The whole thing is made from 1/8" pvc, and styrene. The wingspan was around 16". I used a really stiff paint brush to streak a woodgrain on the plastic, then mixed up a brown colour and mixed it into a clear urethane and sprayed it on. It looks convincingly like wood.



I found a small bicycle toy at the store and decided to get it for the model. It had spoked wheels, and pedals. Both of which I thought would be awesome on the model. I added some small runs of brass wire as cable stays, then it was done. After we loaded everything up on Monday, we headed out to the location which was about 2.5 hours away at a beautiful farm that was built in 1861. We assembled it in the barn. Sadly it was after dark by the time the truck arrived with the plane. However, the lighting guys had a generator in the barn, as well as 4k light ready to go. So there was plenty of light to work by. After it was all done, we were invited to stay for dinner, and we gladly accepted. The ride home was long, and it was freezing rain. I wasn't able to get any final images as the barn wasn't big enough for the wingspan. I was promised stills by production, so as soon as I get them I will post them. The rest of this week should be really easy going for a change. We have 2 trophies to make for a t.v. commercial. The fun thing is that they are trophies for a rock/ paper/ scissors competition :) They're on a tight budget, so we will just hack a couple of existing trophies. It's always different around here, that's for sure.
8)
JO
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