Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Nash's Dream Project: Norse Goddess Metal Helmet

      This week we're giving into Nash's geeky side and working with metal. Specifically, he's welding a Super Hero helmet for Loki's wife. While we normally do sewing projects on here, it seems right with DragonCon coming up in a few weeks to do some fun projects for the blog. Many people have been asking for requests to see some design and sample work the office does. So, here ya go.
     The process for welding sheet metal into a helmet is similar in many ways to sewing if your needle is a spot welder. First you sketch your design. Ideally it should be a technical sketch. I am snagging Heather's picture here because she did such a good job putting this together as a starting point. My friends are awesome. Drawing abilities get you a long way in custom design work. Next, you cut a test cut in oak tag on the model to test how it looks. You can move the pieces around by holding them together with magnets before finishing any corrections. If you like how it looks to proceed to the next step, working in your real substance, in this case Nash is making his sample in steel next. This is mostly because steel is easier to weld than aluminum.
     One important part of custom work is the need to make samples to test and discard for quality control. This is a large part of what drives up design cost for me is the fact that I have to go through several iterations before settling on a final design. Nash is much the same way. The whole measure twice, cut once type. It's especially important when your final material may be expense or you only get one shot to do it right. Have a great day! Next up, sheet metal.

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