Barrelling machine

Due to my laziness and general engineers “there must be a tool for that, and why haven’t I got one” some time ago I bought a barrelling machine to do the bulk of my polishing. It is one of these kits and gives you most of what you need to get stuff polished, however, I found it less than perfect out of the box.

The main points I didnt like were the lack of traction twixt the rollers and the barrel and the fact that the nice airtight seal between the barrel and the lid made it quite hard to get them on and off.

The solution to the first problem; Rubber Bands!
The solution to the second problem; drill a hole in it!

Look:

When everything is dry then the barrel will rotate quite happily, but when a tiny bit of moisture  gets on the rollers, then one end looses traction and the other slips off and your barrel goes skidding across the worktop and off onto the floor. As this thing uses water it is not uncomon for it get damp when you are filling/emptying it so this is a bit of a design flaw. To help alleviate this a pair of post office standard rubber bands of the type dropped by ones local postie as he does his rounds are very good for getting a grip on the rollers however there are still issues with this. Firstly, they don’t like large quantities of water and will still slip if there is a leak or a stray drop around and secondly, they will wear out after a few hours of use (but hey – the postman will probably leave you some on your doorstep). My next step for this will be to find a better material to use, like self amalgamating tape perhaps…, and to make a couple of arms to catch any escaping barrels (you may notice that some other designs of machine a cavity the barrel can’t get out of easily) or rebuild it with the rollers further apart so the CoG of the barrel is lower and therefore needs to be lifted further to escape.

For the other problem I found that putting the lids on and getting them off was a right pain as the water-tightness of the barrel  was just a hindrance. The first solution was to drill a 0.5mm hole in the centre of one end cap (the one I would always take off) and not fill it more than half full. This doesn’t not work because the foam created by the tumbling process just resulted in water getting out though the hole. since there wasn’t a lot of water getting out I taped a bit of fabric over the hole to absorb this moisture. This worked ok but after a long period of use the cloth would get saturated and need replacing. The solution I am using at the moment is to screw a screw (well, cup hook since it is easer to undo and do up by hand) into the hole I made so that it fills most of the hole while in use but can be removed before putting on to taking the lid off. Just to catch any further drips, I put the screw through a piece of kitchen towel, so any time it gets to wet I can simply replace it.

After all that I can chuck things in the tumbler for a couple of hours and they come out all nice and sparkley, and what’s best, No work on my part, I can keep making new things.

On the bench

Currently on my bench I have more or less finished this pendant.

It is a prototype to try out the design more than anything. The idea is that it would be worn with a low cut top and would compliment and accentuate the wearers natural curves. Artistically, it is a combination of mechanically straight and organically curved lines. and from an engineering standpoint is is practically a space frame apart from the trapezoidal frame at the back making it very rigid. I had had the idea for this a long time ago and made this pendant but it was very flimsy and likely to get bent. by adding the frame inside it adds both more interest and much more durability.

Halmarking

After 5 years of making small bits of silver on and off and never making anything big I have started selling properly. There is requirement for items over 7.78g to be hallmarked by law if they are to be sold as silver and this must be done at one of the 4 assay offices. After a post on the Cookson Gold forum about which assay office was best to use, I have elected to use the London office. Paperwork is in and I have revived the email that it is all progressing nicely.

I already have 3 pieces waiting to go and get stamped.

Welcome to a blog about arty things.

I have decided to start this blog to chronicle some of my artistic endeavours, particularly my adventure into trying to sell my art. I have set up a folksy shop and now I just need to get people to buy stuff. I tend to do a lot of one thing for a bit then swap to something else. This is mainly because I have not got enough room or time to be doing everything at once. At the moment I am making jewellery and screen printing tiles while looking at my printing press and thinking I need to do some more lino cuts. I also have been known to do a bit of screen printing fabric, painting, etching, metal typesetting, stained glass, sandblasted glass, pottery, sculpture and plaster/resin casting and probably a nuber of other things I can’t think of at the moment.

I am an old school engineer so I like working with my hands and take the view ‘if someone else can do it, so can I’. This means that when I am not being artistic I design and build my own CNC machines and associated software, I am working on parallax and structured light 3D scanning, I restore old machines (currently a Lister CS 6hp engine which I is needing me to put new hydraulics on my tractor to operate the crane so I can move it and get it finished) and many other half finished projects just waiting for a bit or the right weather or a new tool.

All of this feeds into my art as I am forever learning new techniques and skills.