I’m not sure if there is a category for this so I will just put it here.
I didn’t post this earlier because I didn’t know if I would be able to get it out of the computer and into the real world. It seems as though I may be able to get it done.
This thing has been a serious challenge thus far and now the real world work begins.
Industrial laser cutters only seem to use dxf and step files. Blender doesn’t do step and the Blender dxf exporter doesn’t seem to work with industrial laser cutters either.
I had to find a workaround which took two weeks of frustration. Then I forgot to include 1 part. Uggh.
Ill post updates as the real deal comes together. The end result will be TIG brazed with silicon bronze wire and black oxide finished.
To give you guys an idea of the scale of this project: it’s over 42" tall, 24" wide, and 16" deep. The unwelded metal for the bottom base (the largest piece in the kit) weighs 35 lbs.
All parts were cut from 11 gauge A36 mild steel which weighs 5 lbs per square foot.
All of this is going to be welded on my kitchen counter.
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Nifty.
How’d you get your object flat. Is that a UV map? Looking for a way to flatten an object for cnc’ing.
You may want to look at Blender Cam. It interfaces with gcode-using tools.
I separated all faces individually and rotated them to face all in the same direction. Then I made as many duplicates of those faces as were needed to complete the project. That is the resulting layout that you see.
It’s not a uv map. The colors make it easier for me to organize the project.
I looked at blender cam but it seems to be for milling operations. I can’t afford that. Too bad for me because mill cuts are far superior to laser cuts.
Some of the parts are ground to give a channel for the brazing rod to lie in. This is only done on the base of the triangular pieces because they had such a small gap during initial fit up. All other pieces do not require this groove because they fit at 90° angles. This is done to keep the project looking uniform (we don’t want the brazing sitting on top of the metal) and to provide more strength in the bond.
Brazing is a process that is very much like Velcro in that the brazing material embeds itself into the pores of the metal. This is not a welding process because dissimilar metals cannot be welded. Because the brazing rod melts at a significantly lower temperature than does the steel, much less heat is dumped into the part thus controlling heat distortion. Heat distortion on sheet metal is a serious problem and it can ruin your project in short order.
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Degreasing the parts in a non toxic cleaner. I learned this trick from a master gunsmith by the name of Bob Dunlap. Simple Green is an excellent degreaser and cleaner, is non toxic, and it doesn’t sting much when your hands have cuts on them.
Next, the parts are rinsed under hot water to remove the cleaner. The hot water helps the parts to dry faster. The top is wiped down with a towel while the bottom towel absorbs the water.
Finally, the parts have the moisture driven from their pores with a map gas torch. This is done on both sides. It’s difficult to see in the photo but the torch is in the bottom right corner and you can see it removing the moisture because the parts are dark gray where the moisture still resides.
Steel likes to rust if you let it stay damp.
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Beautiful. I love making clocks (though using lumber). Looking forward to see the final piece.
Finials are complete. This represents almost 20% of the brazing (290 imperial inches of a bit over 1700 total inches). I used over 1 lb (1/2 kilo) of brazing wire and I’m almost out. 10 lbs will arrive in the post on Thursday.
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The cross is now finished.
I designed this thing to look like a gothic king chess piece. But the reality of the situation is that it’s looking more like a grave yard which I like even better. I couldn’t put the medium size finials on the front and back row because I can’t get my torch and my fat hands in there to weld the cross to the top plate. I had to replace the medium finials with the small ones and, again, it looks better to me than how I designed it to look. My girlfriend said it’s starting to look like something that Ozzy Osbourne would buy. I certainly hope that I can start selling projects like this to folks like Ozzy.
The movement housing got finished today as well.
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Getting closer. Hopefully I’ll have the brazing finished this week.
The legs are only attached to the movement housing with magnets so the housing is upside down. But it’s starting to come together nicely.
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I attached the legs to the movement housing today. The holes have been drilled in the housing for the hands and winding mechanisms as well. I’m not using that cheap face that came with the movement. It’s just there for the purpose of demonstration.
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Reinforcing (gusseting) the bottom side of the top plate to keep it from warping (hopefully).
This will be done for all plates (faces) which have intersecting (perpendicular) geometry. I’ll braze them in approximately 1 inch (25.4mm) segments and then allow the plate to completely cool with a fan before proceeding further.
Controlling heat input is critical on a project like this.
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Finished sub frame and skirt. Another sub frame is going to have to be fit to the opposite plate to keep the movement housing and legs from buckling the plate downward when the are attached (there are a few fairly descent gaps in excess of 1/16 inch - 1.6mm).
It’s starting to really take shape now. There is still a lot of work to be done but the finish line is in site… at least as far as the brazing goes.
Sourcing the mahogany resonator plates and the two way mirrors may take a while.
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Fit-up and tacking of the bottom plate subframe.
The larger tacks on the corners are due to arc wander as a result of using magnets to hold everything together for tacking. This thing isn’t going to look like it was made by a machine, nor do I want it to look that way. The quirkiness of the hand brazing gives the piece character. Some “mistakes” are a natural byproduct of the process and my capabilities as a weldor while others were added on purpose.
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Wedding cake is finished.
I had to take a couple of weeks off so I could get some internal reinforcement parts made.
No project would be complete without Yerba Mate.
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Thanks for sharing your process here, it’s very interesting to see!
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And here is the magical heat distortion monster rearing her ugly head. I didn’t put any bracing on the bottom plates of either the upper or lower part of the wedding cake. Shame on me for that. It is bucked up a full 1/8" (3.2mm) on each end of the bottom plate. Had I put internal bracing onto these plates - this would not have happened. Fortunately the entire assembly is still very stable and does not rock to and fro. It will also sit on a plush matte to keep from damaging whatever furniture it sits on because, at 3 1/2 feet tall (1 meter) , it is not designed to be a floor model.
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122 lbs (55.5 kilos) without the finials or cross attached. Bump it up to 140 lbs (63.6 kilos) with the additional parts.
I still have to order the 2 way mirrors and build frames for them. That will probably bump it up into the 160 lb (73 kilos) range.
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The brazing work is finished. There are some touchups that are necessary but it’s almost time to send this thing to powder coat.
Matching weep holes to prevent explosive decompression of the brazing joints. Nothing on this clock case is sewn up airtight (haha) so that there are no problems when it’s put into the powder coat oven.
Positioning the finials.
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