Finger Casts + Ultra Glow-in-the-Dark Plastic

Monday, June 6, 2011

Preface: A whole-hearted recommendation for Glow Inc’s glow-in-the-dark powders! I ordered some of their “Ultra Green v10″ as well as some blue and orange glow powders, with the intent of mixing them into my plastic work, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this bright a pigment. My first few experiments have yielded glow plastics that are so bright you can see them in daylight (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a consumer accessible product that can do that), and at night they release enough glow that you can actually read a book by them. Making that even more impressive is that the glow keeps on radiating for over 24 hours in the dark (although not as brightly of course). The other colors aren’t as bright as the green, but they’re still super-saturated and quite beautiful. One of the most fun bits in my growing crafter/maker arsenal.

Let me begin by showing you some of my recent finger casts (with the mold being made in all of four minutes using silicone putty squeezed over a digit), most of them done in Smooth-Cast 325. Even though the manufacturer says that it’s “clear amber”, I think its natural color is closer to a smokey transparent with a hint of blue, but either way it picks up additive powders’ color well. From left to right, the top row below are nickel powder (not black), untinted/clear plastic, ultra green v10 glow powder, pewter (very heavy and thankfully I’ve eliminated the bubble problem), silver powder, and blue dye. The bottom row, also left to right, are ultra blue powder with a nickel powder cap, ultra green v10 powder, clear with a silver powder cap, and clear throughout.

That photo was taken in quite dim lighting but not darkness, and you can keep reading for other conditions. I also want to point out that none of the pictures here are manipulated for brightness. They’re as they came from my camera without any exaggeration. By the way, all of the pictures in this entry can be zoomed into by clicking on them.

And as always, do forgive me for textual errors as I just don’t bother proof-reading any more, sorry…

But yeah… I’ve included lots more pictures, including some taken completely in the dark (other than the glow of course) that are amazing given how badly my camera handles low-light, after the break. I wanted to mention though that the nickel parts didn’t photograph well — in reality it looks like a dark gunmetal, black in the grooves and dark silver on raised ridges. The blue plastic (ie. top right) looks rather black in the pictures but it’s rich deep dark blue that my camera avoided. If it wasn’t for the 3D capabilities of my camera I’d spend more time bemoaning its quality because it seems like Fuji figured people would pay double for a camera that does everything worse than most point and shoot if it just has that gimmick.

Anyway, more after the break.

(Continued)

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This time I’m not just teasing

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Last night I painted the latest two cactus pots that I sculpted.These come from chatting with Nefarious about potential pots while we were reading, at which point we took a break and each drew our idea and I quickly brought them to 3D life. Her design actually turned out better — it’s the one with the cactus that looks more like an upside-down geriatric scrotum. Of course it’s some sort of spider beast, with a cactus for a hairdo. The more normal cactus not needing a gross-out metaphor to describe it is my design, a cactus in disguise. The masquerade mask is festooned with 4mm Swarovski crystals, which is also what the red pupils in the spider are made of. Both are coated with automotive engine enamel which I like because it’s much, much tougher than normal clear sprays and quite chip proof.

As should be no surprise, I had plenty of fun making these, even though I had to replace the legs on the spider twice on account of my dropping misadventures. There are lots more views from different angles after the break if you would like to see more detail.

(Continued)

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Another Tease, Different Projects

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Awwww mannnnnnnn…. I have broken so much of my work today, sometimes more than once, a second time after repairing it. Sometimes it’s seizures and sometimes it’s plain old clumsiness. I’m not sure which is worse but it is definitely time to put the tools down for the night. I even damaged the paint job on the skull mouse. It won’t be a tough fix but it delays the assembly job by a day. I’m working on a couple more cactus pots for fun as you can see. Totally in progress, early progress.

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Little Cactus Pot

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

I was tickled to see my Jeep posted on one of my favorite blogs, Hack a Day, although it was frustrating to see that some of the trolls commentators seemed to have trouble relating to it and were perhaps feeling a little classist. Naw! It didn’t take away from the ego trip. But… As promised, on to the titular creation:

So, yeah… I wanted to quickly post the little cactus pot that I made out of Apoxie, just adding a few worm loops whenever I had a bit left over. I’m going to be making a bunch of these because I picked up a set of cacti for about a dollar a piece. When I was done the body of the bowl, I put a temporary support on the bottom and made some tentacles. Since they hardened hanging to the ground, once the support was removed it looked like the tentacles were doing all the work. I painted it in Vallejo acrylic model paints, and then sprayed it with a high temperature clear silica paint that’s designed for car exhausts, so it’s quite solid. Which reminds me, I had been keeping all my paints in a box and it was getting awkward and messy, so I built myself a little shelf that hangs under my coffee computer table for them. It’s a double-deep double row so it’s still not perfectly convenient, but it’s much nicer I think.

Speaking of the truck and exhausts, last night I tore off the last three feet of exhaust pipe (from behind the muffler on back), so I’ll have to deal with that shortly. Other than that Caitlin and I had to run some errands and while out I picked up Nefarious a bug and frog collecting container that has a cool magnifying lid, making me quite certain that I’ll be going on a body-destroying hike in the forest after school. And then of course I’m finishing off the mouse assembly as mentioned. I just spent half an hour photographing all the pieces, so all I have to do now is make a drive belt for the scroll wheel, a connector for the battery (the mounts are done so this will be easy), and then assemble it.

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Mouse CaseMod Teaser Pic

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I’ve finally got my big casemod project, totally reskinning (and redoing some of the mechanical and electrical innards as well) a Logitech V220 wireless mouse. I’ve included not just the mouse buttons but also the scroll wheel and its button. Last night I painted the mix of cast plastic and sculpted polymer clay and metal parts and today I gave it four coats of super strong automotive engine enamel (normal clear coats aren’t strong enough). Here is a teaser picture of all the painted parts (and a clay pot I made for a cactus but I’ll post that separately). Watch for a massive post on the finished project and a complete how-to in the next few days.

I probably (…definitely) put a lot more hours into this than I should have but I’m proud of how it turned out and the picture doesn’t do it justice. I’ve had a rough couple days in no small part because of the heat — crossing 42 degrees Celsius (or 108 degrees Fahrenheit) with the humidex today. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. I hate how hot it is in Toronto in the summer… I’ve never been able to stomach it. If it weren’t for being stuck here for medical reasons I would gladly leave and move to Nunavut.

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