V&A Plywood Exhibition - Strength & Beauty

July 24, 2017

Last Friday I had the pleasure of a trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. While this is always a brilliant and inspiring day out, this trip was motivated by the chance to see the compact but very nicely presented exhibition entitled Plywood: Material of the Modern World

While we all know plywood is both cool and interesting, when I told friends I was going to see this exhibition they either laughed or mocked how dull it would be. I'm always befuddled by this response as in my experience almost anything can be interesting if presented by someone with a passion and knowledge for it. The V&A pretty much always manages to do this, so suffice to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

They started the exhibit by explaining the process of how the wood veneers are cut by rolling the log onto a blade and then how these are glued with alternating grain direction which is what gives it both its strength and flexibility (literally and figuratively). The displays then progressed through each historical period that plywood has been used in, providing examples of the products that were made with it during that time. Particularly well done was how they weaved (or maybe laminated) key stages of technical development, detailing manufacturing processes and how these influenced designers and engineers.

Toward the end of the exhibition they show more recent uses of the material which included examples of things made by Wikihouse and Opendesk who do some very cool things with CNC based design and manufacturing. I got a kick out of seeing the videos of CNC's cutting out plywood parts as obviously this resonated with what I do. So in summary, the exhibition is not huge, being contained in a single hall but manages to convey the history of the use of plywood and its place both in industry and design very nicely.

Certainly if your in the vicinity of the V&A its worth going in particularly as its a free exhibit in a free to enter museum. On top of that the V&A is amazing. I previously thought given its name that it was just about Victorian things, how wrong I was. To quote wikipedia: "The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A), London, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert." - One of the best things about it is the quality of the artifacts that they have on display along with the breadth of disciplines they cover (ceramics, woodwork, furniture, ironwork, silver, gold, jewellery, printing, sculpture etc. etc.) Add to that the discovery areas where they explain the manufacturing processes, tools and progression of these in the different mediums and you could easily spend a whole day in each department.

So in short - Plywood exhibition interesting and worth a trip (but only until November) - V&A incredible regardless.

DIARY: Lakes, pencils, mantels and amps

July 14, 2017

Unrelated to the workshop we spent a very nice couple of days in the Lake District last weekend, although I can only take a small amount of credit for it being named a UNESCO World Heritage site the Monday after... We climbed Helvellyn along Striding Edge which is spectacular but quite adventurous. While up there I accidentally took a picture in black-and-white on my phone which I liked for the contrast and old-fashioned look, so I'll add that to the gallery below. I also persuaded my wife to visit the Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick on the Sunday - although its very small and barely a museum as much as an advert for Derwent pencils I did find it quite interesting, despite my friends saying it would be dull, plus they had a very large pencil - see below. Interestingly (at least to me) the graphite for the pencils was mined nearby and known colloquially as "wad". It was so valuable that there was serious organised crime around its theft, one of the graphite thieving felons was known as the "Dandy Wad Stealer", a fact alone worthy of the whole trip. That's probably enough non CNC related information, I should probably get back to what's happening in the workshop.

I've alluded to a mantelpiece project I've been working on for a while now. The specification for this job is to create a smaller facsimile of an existing rather ornately carved example which dates from around the 1700's. Rather than employ any kind of 3D scanning technology, which I do hope to explore more in future, I decided to do it the 'old fashioned' way, at least as far as CNC carving goes. This involved taking a lot of photos and then using Vectric's Aspire software to create a lot of 2D vector lines and then from those I was able to virtually 3D model all the components. I've been working on the models for a few weeks on and off and have cut a couple of samples of the larger panels. This week the machine was out of action for a couple of days due to the workshops electrical supply having some issues, that was fixed Wednesday so I was able to cut various pieces of the detail carvings on Thursday. This included the capital faces, the corbels and some of the decorative moulding. Images of which are below. Cutting samples like this obviously adds time to the job but it is very useful to understand where the models may need to be tweaked and also to think about how something relatively complex like this might be carved and assembled. Hopefully we'll move onto that stage next week.

One other excellent diversion this week was discovering Jam Jar Amps. One of my new hobbies/challenges is learning to play guitar. I've left this way to late in life but am really enjoying it and at some point would like to fool-around with making an Electric guitar or two with the CNC. As part of my research into that process I came across a small company in Wales who makes an amplifier for a guitar that is literally inside of a Jam Jar with the speaker in the lid, all powered by a 9 volt battery. I ordered one which sounds surprisingly loud and also has a great raspy sound. I also ordered two of the kits (just the electronics and speaker) which I intend to make cool little amplifier boxes from using the CNC. Picture below of the Jam Jar Amp.

DIARY: Lack of Progress

July 7, 2017

There is much to reflect on and learn from this week despite the lack of feeling like I made any progress in the workshop. In some ways the fact I use a word like progress is an indicator to where my mild discontentment may have arisen from as I am already slipping into treating this like work again!

I've not really cut anything that I would describe as interesting which has irritated me. This is due to a combination of working on 'real work' and completing a lot of annoying but very useful jobs like finishing setup of my PC and rigging up a dust collection method for the CNC. The weather was also bloody hot (at least for the UK) and so the area the CNC resides in becomes unbearable after about 2pm.

My irritation has made me realise that I'm already unconsciously starting to do 'quick' jobs for other people - mostly for minimal charge or as a favour - which is eating into the time where I could be doing more complex interesting work. So far this has had some benefit as I've been able to learn something useful from almost everything I've cut. This will diminish though as these jobs continue to be similar in scope. As such, going forward I need to make sure they continue to help me learn something and if not that I start to say no or charge accordingly to guard the time for the cool stuff.

My other realisation is that I am unable to gain pleasure from doing useful jobs that need to be done but are not interesting. This is almost certainly a character flaw but one that will be hard to overcome. I'll have to think more about how I might reconcile this. Perhaps as I reap the benefits of something like the dust-collection system I'll be able to realise how these types of activities can be made more pleasurable. It would probably help to frame them as beneficial before I start rather than an inconvenient necessity.

So, as you can probably tell if your still reading this, this week there is nothing to show but the meanderings of my mind. I have done quite a bit of computer work on the mantel reproduction job I'm working on but need to ask the customer if I can share that or not. I also made a prototype for someone but that cannot be shared.

So my challenge for this week is to refocus on the original goals and start enjoying the overall process again, maybe aiming to make one or two cool things to keep the sense of contentment bubbling along. At least the weather appears to be going back to normal UK summer so the barn will be bearable for full days again.

DIARY: Corbels and a Dish

June 30, 2017

I cut a lot more 2D components for Tom P who I share the barn with with week. Although these are mostly simple shapes they are interesting to cut as they are typically 50mm (2 inches) or deeper material so present interesting challenges with deep cutting and part hold-down. I mostly use a 1/2 inch tool for these and impressively the vacuum hold-down on the Exel CNC has been up to all challenges so far with these and everything else I've thrown at it. Another more complex part I made for Tom was a corbel, this was 120mm thick so I cut it in 2 x 60mm pieces which could be glued up as shown below. I used the very efficient Moulding Toolpath in the Aspire software to create the toolpaths for these with 1/2 inch diameter ballnose for the shaped areas and a 1/2 inch diameter end-mill for the flats and to cutout.

I also had chance to work on a 2-sided project this week to create a decorative dish. These projects require you to cut one side, then flip the material and cut the other. I designed an elongated partly oval shaped dish with convex cutouts at each end. On the back I created a gentle ripple effect which tapered towards the middle of the dish. This was cut into a 60mm thick piece of Sapele wood. I used an beta-copy of Vectric Aspire V9 software which has an excellent new feature to help work with both sides of something being cut with a 2-sided setup. I cut the first side (the inside of the bowl). Then to locate the second side I used a sheet of MDF as a base on the machine and cut dowel locations into it, which corresponded to some I had already cut the top side. These ensure the two sides align. Everything with both the CNC and the software setup worked perfectly. You can see a couple of images below and a lot more in the Ripple Dish Gallery. This has yet to have a finish applied but has sanded up very nicely.

I also did final finish on some Simple Signs I've been cutting for friends and family and did the final hand-work and some Danish Oil on Abraham Lincoln, more pictures on the process to make this in the Abraham Lincoln Death Mask gallery.

The other less fun jobs I took care of this week was setting up a tool library in the software, tidying and unpacking everything and finishing the office, so now I have a good space to work on my new PC which is as yet unused. Now these mundane things are done I'm looking forward to moving on with some more interesting projects in my temporarily organised environment.

DIARY: 2D Bits and Abe Lincoln

June 23, 2017

I worked on a few components for Tom who I share the workshop with this week along with finishing up my replica of Abraham Lincoln's death-mask. My new computer arrived, which required some set-up and I finally assembled workbench, so the workshop is now 90% operational. Next week I just need to get legs on the desk in the office and move everything to its final position before organising all the tools and finishing materials - at the moment they are all stuffed into boxes so I can never find anything. Like any good workshop, I want to lay everything out in logical places so I feel like I should be able to find things even though I'll still end up leaving them lying around and actually never be able to track down what I need...

The relatively simple components I made for Tom this week presented some interesting challenges and were a good test of the CNC's vacuum hold-down along with its power and precision for deep cutting. One of the shapes I cut was out of 75mm (3 inch) thick poplar. I used a half-inch tool to cut them out and the machine did a brilliant job with them, I did not cut all the way through but still down to 70mm which was impressive (see first two pics below). These will be used to create corner coves. Another job he asked me to look at was to cut some simple door stop shapes with countersunk drill holes. I was able to make a single quick-prototype which we checked to make sure it would work. Once that was passed as being OK then I setup the machine to cut 78 of them which was as many as I could fit on the oak board. (see pics 3, 4 and 5 below) Again the machine performed really well cutting these and the only thing I should have taken the time to do was to optimise the toolpaths more in the software although this was not too problematic as I had other things to work on. One of these was finishing up my replica of Abraham Lincoln's death-mask (see pic 6 below) which involved some work with the Dremel and sand paper. This is made from oak butcher block kitchen worktop scrap. Originally it was just a proof of concept but I'm really pleased with how its turned out and the butcher block gives it an intriguing patchwork effect. There is still a bit more sanding and oiling to finish this but I'll properly document the whole project soon.

I think therefore I CAM

June 19, 2017

How are René Descartes sleeping habits and what I do at CeorfanWorks connected?

Descartes (1596 – 1650), the French mathematician (scientist and philosopher), apparently did not like to get up early. Allegedly, while Monsieur Descartes was enjoying one of his frequent morning lie-ins he was watching a fly on his ceiling. Being the curious type of fellow he was rather than thinking about what he was going to eat for breakfast (or lunch depending what time he decided to get up), he was trying to work out how he could describe the position of the fly mathematically. He realised that if you use the corner of the ceiling as a point of reference you could locate the fly by measuring the distance along each straight edge going from that corner of the ceiling.

Nowadays we typically use this way of indicating a point as horizontal and vertical positions on a graph and they are called Cartesian coordinates, so named after our favourite late-rising French polymath. These values are described as X values for the horizontal axis and Y for the vertical axis. They can be used to describe individual positions and even shapes (using algebraic equations) on any flat plane.

If you now imagine laying our flat piece of graph paper on a table and then adding another straight axis coming up from the surface of it, we can locate any position above or below our grid by giving the 3rd dimension which is indicated as the Z-axis. This means that based on a given reference point to measure from we can describe any point in space by giving the X, Y and Z measurements (positive or negative) from that point – for more technical info see Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_coordinate_system.

This way of indicating positions is critical to how the CNC-machine we use at CeorfanWorks operates. The CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machine is essentially a robot with a spindle (like a powerful drill) attached to it that can be programmed to cut out parts using rapidly rotating, shaped, cutting-tools. Each time you use the machine you provide it with a reference point for the end of the tool, typically on the corner or middle of your piece of material. This is X-zero, Y-zero and Z-zero. Now based on moving from that position we can send it to any point within its work-space using our Cartesian coordinate system described earlier.

Positions are fed to the machine many times per second by computer files that may contain thousands and potentially millions of coordinates. While it is possible to program these values as a manually written list, that would not allow you to cut anything very complex in a timely fashion. This is where the Computer Numerically Controlled part comes in. Complex cutting-programs are generated using specialist software to first draw either the 2D or 3D shapes you want to carve. Then either the same or different software can be used to create the list of coordinates, derived from what we have drawn, that we can feed to machine to get it to move our tool and cut the parts. These lists of Cartesian coordinates are typically known in the CNC world as “toolpaths”.

The design part of this type of software is called CAD (Computer Aided Design) and the part that generates the paths for the CNC-machine is known as CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing). This of course is where Descartes involvement goes full circle as using this technology for making things you can literally say “I think therefore I CAM”…

DIARY: Setup and Signs

June 16, 2017

At the moment I'm still working on getting the workshop and office setup so worked on a few quick sign projects this week while also ordering a new computer and more finishing supplies, such as gold-leaf and various paints. I also setup a Twitter account @ceorfanworks and have a long term project on-the-go to replicate an antique mantelpiece which needs a lot of 3D modelling - so that will be ongoing for the next few weeks and if the client allows I'll post more about that in future.

The quick projects this week were mostly signs that I'm making as gifts that are also allowing me to continue to test how the CNC cuts in different situations and try out a few finishing ideas. You can see below a simple house number which was v-carved, sealed, painted and then the face sanded to leave a clean edge on the numbers. The Wisteria Lane sign (for my desperate housewife sister...) used a combination of a flat-bottom cutter to clear out the space between the letters and a v-shaped tool to get the detail. It was sprayed with white paint then run through a belt sander to remove the paint off the top layer. Both these methods worked well and the CNC performed really well with really good accuracy when lining up the two cuts.

The other fun project I am currently working on, is machining a facsimile of Abraham Lincoln's death mask. I'll write more about this when its complete but you can see it as a work in progress in the second image below.

A couple of simple signs - v-carved, painted and sanded.

Abraham Lincoln's Death Mask - a work in progress.

The bonfire of my vanities

June 9, 2017

Girolamo Savonarola was probably the most famous organiser of a "bonfire of the vanities" in February, 1497. He encouraged his followers to burn objects they considered likely to cause sinful behaviour, these included playing cards, cosmetics, works of art and books amongst other things. There is no indication in the historical record of whether the lack of these items caused a reduction in sin or not...

I certainly don't plan on encouraging anyone to burn anything, however what I'm planning to do with CeorfanWorks for the next 6 months may well be an exercise that ends in the burning of my own vanities.

Allow me to explain...

November 2016 I left my very good job in a software company as I wanted to take some time-out and decide what I wanted to do next with my life. Part of this was a desire to do something more hands-on with tangible end results as well as to spend a bit of time out the rat-race. This is not the first time I have done this and would highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about a change, try reading Seth Godin - "What to do when its your turn" for inspiration.

This has meant a very enjoyable 6 months starting to learn a language (Italian), an instrument (guitar), getting fitter both mentally and physically and a bit of travel thrown in for good measure. In addition I've been organising a work space where I can start to use my software skills to create things using digital manufacturing. The main tool I'll be utilising is a CNC-Router which I'll explain more about in a future post. Essentially though its a robot that can be programmed to cut parts out of wood, plastic, aluminium etc. Something I have been around in one form or another for the last 20+ years.

So where do the vanities come in?

My natural inclination is to approach this as strictly business, create a plan, find markets, opportunities, make products, market them, sell, repeat... A perfectly good approach if I just want to generate an income again. This time though I want to take a different approach as I have the luxury of a cushion of time (money) before I need to worry about it becoming self-sufficient. So for at least 6 months I plan to make what I want to make and to learn and explore the materials and technology. Or to put it another way - complete indulgence of my vanities.

Will anyone else like what I make?

I don't know, and I would like to say I don't care but that is probably not true. As such I'll be documenting the process, what I make and various other things associated with what I am doing on this Journal and in the Gallery. If anyone does find what I am doing interesting then that would be great. At the end of the 6 months I'll either be developing the potential for a business or just have spent a very enjoyable period of time enabling parts of my imagination to be made real, in one form or another.

As most of what I plan to make will be wood, then at least if it does become a bonfire of my vanities then it will burn well...

Thanks for reading,
James Booth