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zvi
I had some creative time today. The lure of the cheap stoneware clay and the old dummy head.. you know how it is.
I’m really happy with it. It’s a believable shape for an anthro critter’s head. That is; realistically proportioned, non-toony.
I used a feline reference, but it came out more canid. Covered it in some leftover silicone so I can get a rigid casting before the clay dries out and shrinks off the dummy.
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Maybe I should do these weekly? What do you think?
Anyway it’s warmed up a little. Workshop’s averaging about 10c when I get down there. Done a couple of test-casts and they look alright.
Will be casting up some from the still-intact moulds tomorrow with a view to ship on Saturday. Others are in progress.
The first couple of layers of filler have gone down to get the new moulds sorted. Another couple of days of that and they should be built up and finished enough to start laying on fresh silicone. After that I make up the new fibreglass jackets. So all being well, should able to cast the full range again by the end of next week.
Only potential delay I’m aware of will be if I run short on silicone or fibreglass resin. Should have enough of all regular resins and foam to fill current orders.
That said I know I’ll need more silicone to account for some more new items, but I don’t want to do piecemeal orders and get charged a tonne on separate shipping. Since TOMPS can get it to you in 2 days, it’s not worth it. I can just find other things to do in the meantime.
Webshop prep has stalled a bit again, but I’m aware we may be loosing internet here for a short while near the end of the month as our phoneline has to be physically dug up and replaced. Launching only to be unable to receive orders would not be good, so it’s not a huge concern. I would still like it to tie in nicely with a complete set of new moulds though, plus some stock on hand.
New soldering station also arrived on Monday, so with the donated oscilloscope and a repaired multimeter, I’m good to start work on the mecha-ears project again, as well as a few other ideas people may be interested in.
Also a complete fluke-find has gifted me with a LOT of leather in a texture that’s almost identical to vinyl leather I’ve previously used for texturing paw-pads. There’s enough I should be able to revamp the whole range and keep the distinctive look as well as push the foam-filled prototypes to a standard item.
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
If you follow my personal twitter you’ll know the last few weeks have been hectic. Family crisis, deadlines, financial issues and a whole bunch more. The final deadline is now MCM Expo in a weeks time, where I’ll be manning a dealers table for Fatkraken while she costumes. In repayment, I get to sell some of my own items on the table.
It’s Halloween, so I’m selling horns.
Presuming the roto-caster I’ve built in the last week starts working again, I should have a number of each. Some of the first final tests came out today.
Yes, there’s a lot of black there. I was testing some calculations for bulk-casting. Meant mixing up a lot of resin in one colour and black shows any defects better. The two “beige” unicorns horns though actually contain UV and GlowInTheDark powder.
The unicorn horns are cast from a hand-made master. These long ones are 8.5″ long and the shorter ones are 3.5″ long. I’ll be making them up in a host of *co-pony-ough* colours, with the fleece at the bottom either black, white or grey as it’s all I have to hand. They’re a shell casting that’s infilled with rigid PU foam. Will likely be putting them on simple elasticated headbands.
These horns are made in the same way but the moulds are taken from real animal horns. These ones are some breed of goat I believe (of the 8 I got, only 6 had a specific species noted). There’s more coming from Jacob, Heriden and Dalesbred breeds of sheep, but the fibreglass mould-jackets are being tricky. This variety will mostly be mounted on headbands and barrettes, though I may also make a few up in foam rubber.
Once Expo’s over I’ll be selling them directly as loose castings for people to use as they will.
Well after after-Expo, when I wake up from the coma.
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
The load of disposable vinyl gloves arrived this morning and I thought “fantastic! I can get all the last fibreglass work done tonight afterall!
I go out, come home, hit the workshop and open the gloves.
And find out I’ve ordered 200 in Small size. My own fault, didn’t read the listing right. Fuck.
More have been ordered, but they’ll take at least 2 days to get here.
Tomorrow I’m going to have to go and find some at retail prices because I can’t wait that long for them.
I’ve also got the roto-caster dismantled to a large degree now. I’ve spent some of the would-be-fibreglassing time working out how to make the inner motor drive two spinning frames instead of one. Should be able to get it all fixed up again in a few hours tomorrow. This way it’ll actually be able to do what I intended it to.
Running worryingly short on time now though.
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
I’m a bit afraid right now.
The milling machine’s been delayed another month. ETA is now early December. But I’m not complaining. Technically I don’t have enough money for it anymore. Once it arrives I’ll have at most a fortnight to pay the rest of the outstanding balance.
Since the £700 set aside for it was going to be sitting in my bank account for some 3 (now 6) months longer than expected, I decided to try and grow the money a bit before it went finally into low-fluidity material goods.
I’ve been spending a lot of money this week. A lot of it either on repairing or replacing tools, but mostly on these horns I’ve won on ebay tonight and the upright rotary table for the 4-axis mill project.
And I’ll be spending more once the horns arrive. I’ll be casting a lot, painting, trying out foam-rubber casts, mostly in the hope of getting enough wonderful quality items ready that I’ll be able to storm both Etsy and MCM Expo with them.
I think I can do it. But I’m still gambling again. And to be honest with myself, my previous gambles haven’t had very good returns.
It’s a supportive routine though. Waiting for supplies and parts to arrive sets me up with a waiting list in my mind, so I get on with immediate jobs a lot faster.
All I do is talk about what I do now. I’m sorry it’s likely not a very interesting subject to most.
Backlog/owed items are almost all done. Legacy projects are either scrapped or progressing. Things are generally improving. Life’s clearing out the chaff.
Will try and get back on Skype in the workshop again tomorrow. Talking while I work may help further.
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
I was out at MCM Expo on Saturday stall-sitting. Karen of Kraken Kritters kindly let me sell some of my Ferret shirts on the table too, so there’s some money in the coffers again now! Just in time, as I need new materials.
The prototype horns I wore also got a lot of attention, so I’ll be pushing on with them. I just need to rig up a roto-moulding machine to get even hollow castings.
Gallery is still down, I know. In the intervening time I’ve had to reinstall this computer. On the upside though it’s running much faster now and I’ve found a lot of archive photos I thought had been lost. So new pics should be up soon. Likewise some lovely new example pieces.
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
The new workshop PC is running fine and a test stream has gone well. So for the next 3+hours I’ll be doing some casting of paw-pads, making up some claws, and probably getting distracted and doing a few other things too.
Excuse the mess, things are still being shifted around. ;)
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
The new work order sheet is helping hugely. I’ve got them listed by resin type, rather than by order. I start at the top, then look at the list to see what moulds are still free that there’s an entry for, then do that.
Makes for some odd bed-fellows, but with the FAR shorter degassing times the bench-top de-gasser’s giving me, it’s easy to manage interleaving the different mixes.
Mondays castings:
Tuesdays castings:
Yes that’s an anvil. I thought it was overkill last time, but since they last couple haven’t bonded to the velcro right without it, it’s in play again.
At this rate, all orders should be complete and shipped at the latest, Monday. Phew.
Please keep an eye on the Twitter feed for up-to-the-minute updates if you’re concerned about your order.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
So back to casting again, now the mini degasser’s working (and working well at that!).
Success in casting the hemispheres in water-clear styrene!
Last night I carefully trimmed the silicone moulds back to make the walls very thin, so they were drawn in with the surface tension as the styrene shrinks. This meant no streaks anymore, and there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable distortion of the shape.
The biggest problem us then actually getting the styrene out of the tin, especially in small amounts. It’s provided in a paint-tin, so unless you’re using the whole lot in one, you need a way to extract small amounts, and a plastic mixing cup is too big to fit in. So today I quickly brazed together mini ladle out of the stainless lid from a cocktail shaker and a long bolt with a couple of nuts for grip.
I’m keeping it in a glass jar, since I only have one sort of styrene to use, and apparently it’s not hygroscopic like the PU resins are. So this’ll keep it from needing repeated cleaning.
Colour mixing
Tonight I finally got a really rich chocolate colour for the only remaining casting order from before Confuzzled. “What would a melted KitKat look like?” was a good visual guide.
10pts Green, 4pts Red, 1pt Black
The resin claws and footpads are setting overnight. As tomorrow is MCM Expo and I don’t know what time I’ll get home, casting will probably resume on sunday.
T-shirts
I’ve been making enquiries into new variations on the standard UKFur design shirts. I’ll be getting a few “4XL” in in the unisex. Technically they’re still 3XL, but of a shirt type where it corresponds to a 54/56″ chest rather than a 50/52″.
Also been gaining interest in getting some shirts in fitted ladies sizes. Currently looking at getting some in standard black.. but also pink. And other colours too, of course!
http://www.promotional-store.com/%28ec5bicj0gpbrwr45b3qfzt45%29/product.aspx?sqs=5lBamEO6TJFdo0YhKUaoMLQ1W5R4IEWzphCPIqTnTSY%253d
Oddly enough, this one is a heavier weight of cotton than the one I was previously looking at, but much more affordable, and should put the ladies shirts at £12 in whatever colour.
As the next LondonFurs meet is only a week away, I’ll likely make the next order after that (as I may need the extra cash I’ll hopefully earn there, to make this increasingly large order).
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
I recently took a £20 commission from a dear friend to make a basic modification to a set of driving goggles. She wanted them “steampunked” and I had a lovely bit of filigree from a 1920/30s wall clock. I’m sad to see it go, but it did seem to be the perfect use for it. So on with making some Winged Messenger goggles.
The first thing I had to do was cut out the middle of the “sun flare”, as it had an odd number of points.
I then filed and put it on the sanding disk to get the burrs off and round the edges. The natural tarnish looks good and authentic, so there didn’t seem need to polish it.
The brass is also thicker than I remembered, so it didn’t seem like it would need extra reinforcement, and I just drilled out the existing holes to put in some rivets.
Standard rivets? Yes. But the frame on the goggles is silver, so the aluminium rivets fade in very well. Okay they’re not real metal (aluminised plastic frames), but the mix is pretty good and it drilled nicely. Too nicely. It was hard to stop the drill pulling through and through the padding.
Still, basically turned out nice. 
Will be dropping it to them at Expo at the weekend rather than posting it as the timing’s not right for postage (will be refunding the postage, of course).
I’ve also just tried styrene water-clear resin for the first time, and have learnt a few things.
The latter is actually an interesting effect, though likely to be hard to reproduce exactly. The pulling away from the mould due to shrinkage during gelling has left river-delta style patterns down the sides, with a clear centre underneath.
It may be avoidable by using a double-fill to take up the slack (but that may increase optical distortion), or a very thin mould that will pull in with the shrinkage due to surface tension (but may distort the shape).
The urethanes are more expensive, but looking more reliable. Will be making a comparison set tomorrow. The cure time is much shorter on PU’s compared to styrenes (3-5min vs 15-20). Gives much less time for proper degassing. May be doable degassing in-mould in a small fast chamber.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Pink rubber nose has come out perfectly. OMFG it’s so cute. And soft like real skin.
Need to make a black one next.
Think I shall make a poll for CF. Currently I have some rough nose prototypes sitting here. Let the users decide what I should do next? Generic triangle? Squirrel? Small or medium canine? Others?
Rainbow selection also come out well. And replacement velcro heel-pad is done, cut and fits with the rest of the set.
Have trimmed up Razor moulds. Will cast more shortly. Gonna add the three Razor sizes to the main claw display first tho. And get on with the special order display.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
finishing up in workshop.
now unhappy with chocolate colouring. Too red. Will remix after CF most likely now.
Rainbow demo set setting in heated cabinet.
Razor series claws first mass casting, setting. Pink Shore 40 nose also, replacement 80S black heel-pad for Velcro footpad display.
Cargo pram also modified and probably sound. Must check allocated train seat and judge position relative to baggage storage. Will carry as much by backpack as possible.
Naruto headbands also almost complete. Hope to be shot of them after so long!
Order of 20 DPFs also being shipped by 1st-class tomorrow. Should arrive in time.
Several displays still need a lot of work, also need to type up, print and laminate point-of-sale, and also print product information leaflets.
Additionally, must work out how to change IRQ assignment for laptops wifi card. Hotel has free wifi apparently and will make uploading icons much easier and cheaper than using phone as modem.
Also must complete and print door art.
Will see about acquiring a haircut tomorrow. Must finish catching up with finances also so I know how much I have in way of food budget.
Mum also intending to provide necklace making materials for my defective claws to sell.
Need to make up several bags of each type for direct sales.
1st Razor batch; 75g leaves underfilled. Go 100g next. Place large end slightly elevated to float level. Learn new fill levels and clean mould lips. Otherwise, good reproduction.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Casting has gone splendidly. Best yet even. I will be stunned if the resulting casts are anything but ideal.
Three-stage degass, apparently good pigment mixing, no spills, minimal mess.
Did make an excess mix though. Fortunately had spare moulds on hand. Odd that sometime’s it’s just under but sometimes way over. Better check my notes.
Used large jam-jars for mixing. Can handle larger amounts and can withstand cleaning with acetone afterwards, as well as letting me view the mixing.
Will have to look out for some with wider mouths though, and rounder bottom corners with no overhangs.
–
Used a reinforcing spring and some araldite to try and repair the broken wing strut. Will see if that holds.
Salvaged some nice long bits of steel from a wrecked cabin bed.
Also must email Receipt #44. They did not collect their item at the LF meet just gone as they said they would.
Time for a shower.
Tomorrow will correct some masters and get new moulds for them cast. Then either do artwork or design the new display stands I have in mind. Glad I have lots of masking tape.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Reprap
Thanks to friend dingotush, the stepper driver circuit is now working!
Think I’ve currently got a pair of phases crossed though, as it jerks quite badly every so often. The motor also gets hot very fast, so I think I’ll have to get some current limiting on the go as well.
Casting
The moulds are cleaned up from the last bad casting and sitting overnight to let any acetone residue evaporate. Fresh casting in the morning.
Will also tidy up the feline nose with some sandpaper and get it ready for a proper production. Same with trying adding a vent to the Razor claws. Going to aim to have some completed demonstration paws at Confuzzled, as well as new display stands for a number of items.
Also aiming to have the commissions book totally clear before the con.
Heard back from Cosmo very quickly, so now I’m just gonna be ticking boxes. 
Also, I’m amazed that some of my YouTube videos have now been viewed hundreds of times. One even over a thousand. There’s nothing even very good on there yet!
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Run out of Shore 40. Need to order some more in and write up a proper supplies tally sheet so I don’t get caught short again in future. Only one current order should be affected.
I’m also down to the dregs of the water-clear resin. Will probably only restock on demand for the moment.
Also have created a page for the Bonsai Repstrap on the RepRapWiki; http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/Bonsai_Repstrap
Need to place orders for more shirts for Confuzzled in a months time. Hoping to have one of my own designs included in that order.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
I have not been coping well today.
Footpads haven’t bonded correctly. Gluing method hasn’t worked very well. I guess the rubber chemistry changes while setting. Unset won’t bond to set.
Going to have to try slashing the velcro to get rubber to bond into it better.
Still, one set come out acceptable.
More casting tomorrow. May catch up yet.
Also roughed out the folding mechanism for the Bonsai Repstrap..
A portable 3D printer is certainly feasible.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
De-potted pure-red claws, sanded and drilled. Posted the small set, long set ready for collection at next LF meet.
Shore 80 castings came out nicely. Not all fully attached to velcro however. Not surprising since it’s stiffer. It’s not flexing enough to make full contact. Think I’ll cast the Shore 80′s separate, then mix a small amount more and use it to “glue” the pads to the velcro. Will take longer, but will be more reliable. Should also let me use the velcro more efficiently.
Doodled some in SAI. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3685774/
Also progressed some other works a bit further.
Bedding down now. Edging sleep back toward normal.
Will see if I can rig my business site to incorporate this journal as a separate blog-line from the one on the front page.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Paw-pads:
Well, the Shore 75 rubber is now here, the 60 has been returned. I’ve not yet caught up with the orders though. There’s a rare collective motivation going on in the house right now that’s saying “Yes, let’s actually clear stuff out!”
Workshop:
Over the past few days I’ve filled one of the wheelie-bins all by myself just with stuff from the workshop. And there’s more yet to come!
It’s been a really harsh thing to do though. I’m a packrat, and I do tend to use the things I pick up sooner or later. But it’s best not to dwell on it all. The space is far more important atm.
Reprap:
Ordered some more Bonsai prototyping bits, but the aluminium tube was out of stock in the end, so I’m going to have to go with stainless instead.
You see, the first simplification I’m making to the Mendel layout is to use the frame as the runners by wrapping the studding with push-fit tube. It should also have the benefit of making assembly and adjustment easier, if I cut the pipes to the correct lengths. Just assemble and tighten.
Art-bike:
Also stripped down the big bicycle frame someone dumped in the alleyway. The front fork stem is the same diameter as the stem on the unicycle I picked up last year. Will have to do some careful grinding and welding, but fitting the unicycle up as the front wheel should be fine. And the frames pedal cranks look like they’ll swap with the unicycle ones, so I can hopefully get the mechanism I was after working alright.
It should make it all into a nice half-horse and buggy. Eventually.
Blacksmithing:
I’ve got a rough forge assembled, but I still need to line it with refractory. Have fire cement and perlite, but think I need to pick up some dry sand too. Well, and some charcoal.
Video:
Got some footage from the digital camera that needs editing. Also haven’t yet tested the capture machine I assembled last week. It’s on my to-do list.
T-shirts:
Seeing who’s interested in what types and sizes. Think I can afford to get one atm. No reply from supplier atm. Will call them in the morning and make an order for the large blue UKFur shirts.
Also converted the carrying case that came with the shirts into something more like a portable shop by chopping down an Ikea hanging rail and mounting fixings inside the case. Now I can store the rail inside the case and use the case as the base of it.
Art:
Yeah, I’m behind on this. But I am catching up.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
First mail-order UKFur shirts have been posted.
Got a reply from the manufacturer, so can calculate more accurate prices now.
Also heard back from TOMPS. Will hopefully have the correct hardness rubber tomorrow. Just have to send back the Shore-60. Little suspect of them saying it should be fine in regular post, since they state it’s not when they’re sending it. Can understand they’d want to keep the postage cost down since they’ll be giving me a credit note as postage repayment.
Will pack it well and send as Recorded.
BIG clear-out is in progress here.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
Mirrored from The blog-hub for Peter "Sci" Turpin.
Old 1.7Ghz machine is out of storage. Running diagnostics to see if I can isolate where the hardware problem is (I suspect the 80Gb boot disk), before installing Win2000 and a capture card on it. And nothing else.
Will also put the old 5.25″ floppy drive in it and see if any old disks still work.
Yesterdays castings are de-moulded. Unfortunately two sets show small areas of unmixed pigment. Will have to double-stage mix it from here on. Still, getting closer to high-resolution shots of all sets, as well as having display sets.
Called TOMPS, still no word yet. Sounds like the boss is out of the office a lot these past few days. Still, have someone wanting a footpad order, and won’t be able to honour it until I have the shore-80. It’s been a week since I emailed them about this.
Up to 9 Mendel brackets cast. Should have the rest needed in an hour or so. I’ll lock up again for a bit after that, get some artwork done, before casting some more pads in the evening.
Had a reply back from the connector company, wanting to know the pitch of the connector image I sent them. I thought I’d included that in my description. Yep. Ugh..
-
DorkBot London was very entertaining last night. My main point of confusion had always been that I’d never found where they talked online. Simple answer; they don’t. You go along, meet people and then communicate one-to-one. This seems surprisingly traditional for such a techno-arty field.
I suppose things like the 2600 meets are the same though. It just feels a little upside-down to me though, having mostly gone to groups or forums which then sparked real-world meetings.
EDIT: 5.25″ drive seems to be working intermittently. Will have to strip it down and clean it.
[20/06/2010: Amalgamating old posts from "Dreamwidth Creative Blog" into sci-fi-fox.com to re-purpose DW blog account.]
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