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.

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Marketing: in miniature#3!

No awesome coffee lids today :( Our usual amazing server wasn't in.
This build, like all the others, is progressing in the usual fashion. The usual fashion being that it looks like not a lot is being done. In fact, it looked like we had more done first thing this morning than when we left!

I was able to spray out the fridge shelves in the bright silver color we're using. Once the graphic panels get placed into them, the only thing visible will be the shelf edges. This makes it very easy to paint as I don't really have to mask off anything.
I employed our handy-dandy height gauge, loaded with an X-acto blade, to cut through the paper masking on the acrylic. The idea is to remove the mask around the outside, so when we paint the panel silver, and remove the center masking, we'll have a set of metal framed glass cooler doors.
It didn't really take very long to cut the mask on all 14 doors.

I added a 1/2" length of .060"X .125" strip styrene to the center of the door, then ran it through our smaller table saw with a .040" thick blade. This became the double handle on the cooler doors. This was a lot faster than adding individual handles, but gives the same look.
After a couple of coats of bright silver, these guys are done. The great thing about cutting the mask right on the acrylic, is that the score of the blade stops any paint bleed under the masking for the glass.

I also got the building walls scribed for the stucco panel look. The next task was to glue up the .060"X .060" styrene strips that will become the track that we can slip the window glazing into.
It went pretty smoothly and looks really clean.
I used a piece of masked .060" acrylic, that will later become the doors and windows, as a spacer for the styrene track. Leaving the paper on stops the glue from attaching the glazing prematurely, and also works as a small spacer. This should ensure that the glazing will still slide in after paint.

Right now there are all kinds of neat little piles of model parts in various stages of completion.
This will all come together in the final hour, effectively making the model look like it was really simple to build. "Oh yeah, no sweat!"

8)
JO







1 comment:

  1. Wonderful outdoor photographs and a few suggestions for myself to work with.This really is wonderful. seems to be really stimulating !The best :)
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