Week of 6/2 - 6/6

This week, I started work on a few little projects to get finished before we go away for the summer. I started the week making a ring in the machine shop with Mr. L. To make the ring, I had to select the material and size that I wanted the ring to be. I chose to work with brass rather than aluminum because I liked the brass look better than the aluminum. After selecting the metal, I sized my finger and determined the look I wanted with the ring. Once I had the metal and the size determined, I set the metal in the lathe to make the ring.

The first step was to face the edges of the ring so that, in the end, the ring would have a nice and smooth finish. After doing this, I was able to begin cutting into the metal to create the hole for the ring. It was a long process on the lathe, and it took about an entire class period to make the ring. In the end, the ring turned out a bit thicker than I wanted it to be, but I was still satisfied with the result. Initially, I wanted to try to imprint my initials into the ring with some of the tools in the shop. However, once I attempted it, I didn't love the look of the imprint, so I stopped trying to do it before the finish of the ring became ruined.

After making the ring, I decided to work on a piece of room decor. While I was searching for something to make, I found this CD-shaped mirror that I thought would fit nicely in my room's decor. I began to make this design in Fusion. I used fusion to make the basic outline of where the object should be cut and some of the internal circles that would be engraved into the material. After making the circles in Fusion, I exported the design to Inkscape to make the words and the other smaller details. My main task here was finding fonts that resembled the ones used on the mirror I had taken as inspiration. With some searching, I was able to find the exact font and use it in my design.

For the actual material that the mirror would be made of, I decided that since we don't have regular mirrored acrylic in the shop, I would have to experiment with some other medium to accomplish the same look. I found some black acrylic that had some reflective quality to it when there was paper stuck onto the back of it. I decided to use this in my final cut as it would be a simple solution to the issue that I wanted to resolve, with there being no mirrored acrylic that suited this project. I hope to cut out the test and acrylic today so I can finish the "mirror" look next week.