Superior Steel Manufacturing

This week we went to Superior Steel, a sheet metal fabrication facility. The experience was amazing. I especially liked the robotic machinery that they had (above). Just as I mentioned on my previous blog regarding die casting, being able to see the manufacturing first hand truly helps with the understanding the process, and designing. Until next time... 

Two-Part Mold

This last thursday night I finished making my two part mold (thanks to Alex the shop guy who stayed late so we could finish), and it is really starting to come together. By cutting out the shape on one board and then sanding it down perfectly I was able to make a key, and from there just use the router to make the additional five layers of my mold. It made the process go really smoothly and faster.

Now I have two, two-part molds. Each mold for each half of the lamp. I also went to Home Depot and got all the materials to finish the lamp. Today I went to the bookstore and found some really great textures rice paper that I'm excited to use for the lamp shades. Until next time....

Die-casting Manufacturing

This week I went with my PD #350 class on a field trip to tour a die-casting manufacturer here in Eugene, and it was awesome. It was great to be able to see the manufacturing process up close and in person. It helped with my design process, because I now know what limitations and values there are with die casting. Our class will be visiting other forms of manufacturing facilities, and I will be sure to post more on this matter.

Wooden Lamp

This is my bended ply lamp design, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I wanted the design to be interactive and that's is why it has optical illusional properties. I want the viewer to be puzzled when they first look at the lamp.

Another thing that I discovered this week was how amazing and easy to work with sketch-up is. I learned how to use it in about an hour, and was then able to accurately model my design. I plan to use it more in the future. Until next time...

Ideas

So today we had the designer presentations and man did the ideas start flowing. All the designers had their own unique style and had something to offer. Though, there were definitely better and worse designers. But, the point is it gave me lots of ideas to use for my projects. First of all I decided what type I think I'm going to use for each material. Wood: table lamp, Paper: hanging lamp, and metal: floor lamp.

I also came up with certain words/ideas that I want to incorporate into my designs: Simple, movement, shadow, passion, tension, building an environment, pulley system for hanging lamp (like what they use for the pool table chalk at the Mcmenamins Pub in Portland), using venire, redirecting light, layered, and multiple sockets.

I'm  becoming more and more excited as the project moves forward and look forward to posting some of my sketches and ideas soon. Until next time, think abstractly. 

Getting Started...

So this is my first blog ever and I will admit it seems a little surreal. Not really sure about this whole thing, but I always down to try new things, and this is definitely new to me. Thus far I don't have much to report, but I'll tell what I do have. This class, Production Tools, seems like it's going to really fun. I like how we'll be using three different materials and making lamps. The ideas are already flowing.

I researched the designers BarberOserby and found some really cool stuff. There website is http://www.barberosgerby.com/. 

Well since this is my first blog, I'll keep it short, but do stay posted for more indepth blogs. Be good.