3D Printing at Chelsea

Last week the exciting world of 3D printing visited the workshops of Chelsea College. Organised by Isabelle, who runs the Laser cutting room here, representatives from  3D printer specialists EMCO were on hand to demonstrate and answer any questions we had regarding this exciting way of creating three dimensional objects and forms. The only question remains........will we get one for ourselves some day soon?
Below are some images taken from the afternoon.

An expectant crowd starts to gather for the demonstration.

We had lots of examples to interact with. Produced from refined Gypsum powder these objects were tough and durable as well as several having moving parts and high levels of intricate detail.

Incredible details are achievable with these machines.....

...as well as life like finishes. 

The 3D scanner unit 

The scanner in use. This machine scans in an object taking in all of its sides, shapes and contours. 

The information is fed into a computer were it is cleaned up, smoothed, filled and flattened ready for it to be printed 3 Dimensionally. 

The 3D printer being readied  

A block of powder holds the form tight whilst it is being formed. 

Layers are printed one at a time. This form had around 140 layers making up the 15mm thick object!

Whilst the form was printing we were shown the process of infiltrating. This is were the form, which is reasonably stable but rather delicate, is coated with Z bond (super glue) to seal and harden the surface.  

Having been dipped it is dried 

and in a matter of minutes the object becomes much harder.

The last few layers of our form are added. 

When the final layer is done the powder is vacuumed away  

and finally we are left with our form. 

It is placed into the blowing unit  

where carefully, a jet of air is blown to remove any of the remaining powder. 

Our object is now ready to be infiltrated. 

Isabelle gets this job and dons a suitable pair of gloves for dealing with the Z bond. 

Dried. 

Done.

Displayed.

New Year ISD Induction

Happy New year to everyone. We kicked off the new term with the 1st year students from BA Interior Design who joined us for their workshop induction. As always the Wood workshop put on an all singing and dancing show culminating in the students getting involved with some materials and machinery as part of a small making project we set for them. The end results were generally very good and we enjoyed the two days with them all. Below are some images taken during their time with us.

 

In come one of the groups ready for their session with us 

 All signed in and aprons on. Time to make a start

Phil kicks things off with an in depth look at hand tools 

As their project nears completion they get to pin their work on a display board 

Always tricky when everyone is watching! 

Phil demonstrates the art of rasping 

The chaps were pretty scarce over the two days but these two got to grips with the Fretsaw 

These girls were busy sanding their pieces 

Weng captivates this group. 

Phil enjoying showing these two how to use the pin gun

Jingle all the way.

Well its the last day of the MA term so we would like to wish everybody a very happy christmas from all of us in the Wood Workshop here at Chelsea College. Have a good one and see you in the new year.

The Alphabet visits the Wood Workshop

It was great to see all those letters that have been made with us here in the Wood Workshop, return for a photo shoot, along with the makers, 1st year Graphics. The idea was simple. Lets spell out our blog name Workbench. Well you'd have thought it was simple but after about five minutes of gentle chaos we got there. Thank you to all the students and to Nigel Bents for organising another successful first term. See you all for crazy golf building in the spring!

Ok. We have all the letters.  Lets spell Workbench 

Getting there 

Right. So now that you have scattered the other letters how about we now spell Workbench! 

Thats better. But what about the full stop? 

Nice! 

Now go put them around the workshop

Nigel getting involved  

Great! 

Final week of term

Well it seems like only yesterday we were admiring our tans in the Wood Workshop and welcoming the students back for the new term. Now, clad in several layers fighting back the cold snap, we are into the last week of the BA term before the Christmas break. Below are a few images taken in the past few days.

Fine Arts Johanna wheels out her vast amount of MDF boxes  

Tianyang from Interior design lines up the next piece of his model 

The last of those lovely Graphics groups finishing off there letters 

Lucia a 2nd year Interior Design student pinning flexiply to her rotating plinth for a Humming bird. 

A busy morning was had by John cutting all these mitred pieces ready to assemble into boxes.

MA Fine Art student Nick, hand drills his holes into hard wood. Hard work more like but it was all part of the required process. 

and then the final glue up ready to insert his test tubes which were used to gather the sawdust that was created whilst drilling the holes. 

Some very nice laser cut letters ready to try a bit of embossing.