Assignment 3: Original tutorial and reflection

#Tutorial - How to make a bowl

#Tools and Materials required to make a bowl out of a piece of aluminium:

• Aluminium sheet (1mm thick) 
• Marker pen
• Egg shaped nylon hammer 
• Steel hammer
• Shotbag
• Wood mould
• English wheel
• Mushroom steel dome dolly
• Sandpaper (80 grid and 1200 grid)
• Hand file
• Turpentine
• Brasso
• Paper towels
• Cloths

#Let's start

1. Draw a circle on a piece of aluminium and use a snip to cut the circle out, and then use a marker to draw out the guidelines that guide me to shaping the bowl. 

2. Next, put the aluminium on the mould, start hitting around the edge of the circle with an egg-shaped nylon hammer, the edge of this piece of aluminium will get stretch and a piece of flat aluminium will starting to curve and become more like a bowl.

(Reminder: One thing has to be careful of when hitting the edge of this circle, tuck will appear during the process, to avoid the aluminium crack, you have to fix/ hit the tuck flat as soon as it appears.)

3. Once, the piece starts to form the bowl shape, you can start to hit the inner circle that being marked before. By doing this, the aluminium will start to shrink and create a greater curve/ depth that a bowl should look like.

(Reminder: Avoid hitting the same spot more than one time, you should keep hitting along the circle in order to get an even depth/ curve.)

4. Once, the bowl has shaped into the desired shape/ curve/ depth. You can put it to the English wheel and give the bowl a smoother and shiny finish.


(Reminder: Do not cross direction when using the English wheel as it can shrink the aluminium, and may result in uneven curve/ depth around the bowl.)

5. After finishing using the English wheel, inspect for any tucks/ uneven edges and put the bowl on a mushroom steel dome dolly and fix them by using the metal hammer hitting on them.

6. Inspect again by putting the bowl upside down on a table and a piece of cardboard at the back, to see where are still uneven and making the spots.

7. Repeat step 5 again.

8. Repeat step 6 again until you are satisfied with the result. After that, roll the bowl on the English wheel gently to give a finally smooth and clear finish.

9. Finally, use the turpentine to clear off the marked line and the surface as well.

10. Then, polish the surface with Brasso to give the bowl a shiny look!

 11. Done!

Reflection

I am an Interior Architecture 4th year student. In this discipline, we focus on the design of interior space, from the scale of the room to the scale of the city, from permanent to temporary spaces. In the design process, we are urged to be creative and practical at the same time, we are aiming to design a space that can create a unique experience for the end users. It is done through the manipulation of materiality, natural lighting, artificial lighting, circulation and structures. 

As a result from doing the BEIL0014 Digital Making, it helps me to understand the capabilities of the material we have been using for this course - Aluminium. I am having a better understanding of the other ways of this material can be used for now. For example, the techniques used for shaping the bowl, such as shrinking, stretching, assessing the form, repeat shrinking, repeat stretching, and eventually shaped a bowl. In this bowl shaping task, I learnt that aluminium is very shapeable. Therefore, I can now use aluminium as a form of design or materials during my studio design project. 

The images below illustrate the spectrum from a bowl shape object to a sphere shaped design elements and demonstrate how different forms can influence a person in an interior space.

Aluminium Mache Hanging Lamp

Atomlike seating pods at Atomium, Brussels

London Table Light by Original BTC

New London Edition Hotel by Ian Schrager

Assignment 2: The Ferrari 250 GTO

This the assignment is to group 6 people from different disciplines within the built environment faculty. As a team of students, we will create a scale template for Ferrari 250 GTO and then divide it into equal portions. As individuals, we will create an aluminium skin to adhere to our own portions of its contours.

1. At the very beginning of the assignment, we started to import the given STL file into 123D Make and transform the Ferrari 250 GTO into a waffle structure.

2. Then, we import the file from 123D Make into illustrator and had some fine adjustments to the laser templates.

3. We can now send these Illustrator files into laser cut! We had decided to use 3MM MDF as our laser cutting materials.

4. And now, we had the pieces cut and we are ready to assemble the Ferrari! There are lots of pieces! There are 22 pieces of X and 18 pieces of Y.

5. The waffle version of Ferrari 250 GTO is completed.

 6. After completing the assembly, we use tape to cover the whole car so we can have a better view of the actual shape of the car. Therefore, this process will help our metal shaping process. I am being allocated to work on the rear of the car.

7. At the start of the metal shaping process, I took a piece of tracing paper and taped at the back of the car. Then, I used a marker to draw out the shape I am being allocated to work on.

 8. And then, I followed the line I drew and cut the piece of paper out.

 9. Put the cut piece of tracing paper on an aluminium sheet, and roughly drew out the shape symmetrically.

10. Use a snip to cut out the excessive part of the aluminium sheet.

11. Following the guideline, I used the english wheel to create a reverse curve. The part I am doing the reverse curve with, it is related to the top section of the back side of the Ferrari. Although using an english wheel to make the reverse curve can keep the surface, it is a bit time consuming and not very efficient.

12. Therefore, I work on the metal shaping by using the egg-shaped nylon hammer/ wooden hammer.

(Notice that I first using the point end of the hammer to shape the general line/ shape of the aluminium, and then use the round end/ flat end of the hammer to continue the shaping. At the same time, I am also fixing the tucks occur during the hammering)

(Tips during the metal process is to refer to a picture of the car and as well as the waffle version of the car, which helps you to create a more accurate shape of the car.)

 13. Use this large snip to trim off the unnecssary edges now.

14. Starting to refine the part where it is flat surface, I used a flat head nylon hammer and trying to flat out the part I wanted it to be flatten. However, it is not quite effective as using the english wheel. 

15. Testing whether the metal fits or not.

(I noticed that the metal isn't fit perfectly to the back of the car, there are some parts needed to be curve/ bend a little bit more.)

16. I went to this huge bending machine and bend this metal into the desired shape.

17. Since there are some restrictions of this machine, it cause some curve part of the aluminium are being flatten slightly. I went back to the bench and refine the shape.

18. A final fit test. 

19. Finally, I use 80 grid sand paper, follow by 1200 grid sand paper to make the surface clean and smooth. Next, using the turpentine and Brasso to polish the skin, giving the skin a mirror like finish.

(After applying the Brasso with a soft cloth, it is necessarily to use a towel to rube off the Brasso, this process will require repeat for few times, in order to get a shiny surface.)

19. This is how all the parts combine together looks like. Done!

(Comment: I thought the part I am being allocated to work on is going to be an easy task, but as I start working on it, I release it is not easy. Since the shape of this part has quite a bit complex line involved, and to shape out the precise shape of the part could be limited by the skills i have on metal shaping.)

Assignment 1: The Blister

This part of the assignment is to create an aluminium skin to adhere to the contours of Blister.

1. Use the jigsaw power tool to cut the middle part of the CNC template out and then use the router power tool to sand the excess bits off - the bits that connecting the middle part and the outer part of the template.

2. Take another template with the same tear drop shape, repeat step 1 to it and then use screws to screw two templates together.

3. There are different ways to approach to the shaping process, I chose the method of putting the aluminium sheet on the mould, using clamps to lock them together tight and then start hammering it.
(This method is learnt from the YouTube video posted on Russell's Blog: http://beil0014-2017.blogspot.com.au/)

4. To get a fast start, I use an egg-shaped mallet and hit on the side of the mould hardly
(Reminder: Be careful of the occurrence of tucks as they may cause the aluminium to crack, flatten them out immediately!)

5. Next step, I used an indirectly way to hit the aluminium by putting an egg-shaped mallet on the sheet and hit the mallet with another mallet. By doing that it allows me to hit a larger surface area and gets a smoother surface. Keep hammering it until the sheet has get to the desired depth.

(Reminder: Since aluminium has a relatively low limit to stretch than other material, such as steel. You have to be careful, not to get it too deep and caused the aluminium to tear.)

6. After finishing the general shaping of the tear drop, I used a pointy wooden block as my croking tool to tune up the edge.

7. After I have finished tuning up the edge, I use a marker to mark a cut line so it ends up with a nice and even flange.

8. Follow the marked line, use the snip to cut the excess parts off.

9. Use another snip to cut off/ fix the uneven bits from the previous cut.

10. Use sand paper to smoothen out the edge and clean the mark with WD40. Done!

11. Compare with my partner's blister.