FMP - Ouch!

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I’m an idiot.

I’m not going to apologise for the gruesome photos, as they need to be shown as a reminder of how not to work.

What happened? Well, the MDF anchors which I was creating (follow-up blog post later) have holes in them for the bamboo. Some of the holes hadn’t lined up perfectly - tried to do the holes individually to ease the load on the pillar drill - the anchors are made up of 4x25mm layers, 3 of which are drilled, and thus required gluing. Thus, I turned to the cylindrical sander - easy, stick a smaller (not small enough as it turns out) cylinder into the sander, place the MDF block on top, and sand. What did I forget to do? Secure the MDF brick.

What happened? I created a circular MDF death block-saw. Caught my hand on the corner, and, well, you see the result.


I am incredibly lucky that I still have a functional hand, with all my fingers & thumb still attached. Don’t anyone else ever be as stupid as I was this morning. I’m 27, and should know better not to operate machinery when I even feel a little bit sleepy.


All being well, stitches (yes, I required 2 to secure the bottom of the ring-finger) should hopefully come out next Friday. I think the stitches were actually more painful than the accident.

I’d like to thank Ben & Simon for acting appropriately & providing first aid; the nurses at Canterbury Minor Injuries Unit for patching me up; and Jack for providing gallows humour & good company whilst they did.

FMP - Revisions

I’ve revised down the number of wall segments that I’ll need, mainly to counter costs, and other material constraints. I’ll be getting 25 (24 + 1 spare). As for anchorages, I’ve decided on the MDF blocks approach, rather than one gigantic MDF sheet, for two reasons:

  • To still potentially adapt the design so that it can be more accessible

  • Ease of installation and movement.

Sourcing your own materials is really quite useful, as the process allows you to find out certain things - such as industry standard sheet sizes for MDF are 2440mm x 1220mm. So, I’m now looking at getting 2 of them at 50mm thick or 4 at 25mm thick. This MDF sheet size is also limiting the number of blocks I can get (they’re 200 x 100mm), so if I do 12x12, I can fit them in, but I only get 24…

144

Oh fucking hell

*headdesk*

Time to go back to the suppliers and get a re-quote.

FMP - Scale Model Construction

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Testing a material replacement for the “banners”/”walls” of the installation. Original plan to use 1.2mm plywood has fallen through (would have cost £400 - no thanks). So I’m looking into a combination of fusible buckram sandwiched between tissue paper & 200gsm cartridge paper. Buckram is used in curtain pelmets for structural stability. This combination of material has similar properties to 1.2mm plywood,  is about the same thickness, and would only set me back around £100. I don’t mind spending that amount of money if it saves me £300.

Also, I’m beginning to wonder whether I have perhaps taken too much on. Currently, I have the following to build over 4 weeks (+ 1 week dedicated construction time):

30 x 1800mm x 200mm wall sections

  • each comprised of

  • 1 2000mm x 40mm (d) moso bamboo pole;

  • 1 1800mm x 200mm 200gsm cartridge paper;

  • 1 1800mm x 200mm crinkled tissue paper sheet;

  • 1 1800mm x 200mm fusible buckram sheet;

  • with slats cut into the fused wall to push the bamboo pole through.

30 x interlocking wall anchors

  • of a design yet to be finalised

1 x projector cabinet

  • To house: projector, media box, speakers, electrical wiring

  • To provide an inclined writing surface on top

  • To provide storage for pieces of paper (& string?) to roll into scrolls.

  • Design is currently being worked on, but since I do not have the dimensions of either speakers or projector (the largest items), I am unable to finalise it over the Easter break.

These, along with keeping the sketchbook in order, printing off & binding appendices, journal & finding time to laser etch my sketchbook cover.

Meep.