The Musing Mill

OK - Yesterday’s class was just an intro on how to setup equipment and how not to catch your self on fire. In fact, it seems there are dozens of ways to creatively maim yourself in the welding shop. Luckily, the safety record is excellent. What I learned;

–Mass Art doesn’t use acetylene as fuel because it is too dangerous. Propylene is much safer, although lower in flame temperature
–Acetylene spontaneously detonates at 15 psi, exploding whatever vessel it is in, killing several welders in the early days. This caused welding shops to change the threads so the oxygen and fuel systems couldn’t be cross-connected.
–An oxygen bottle is under high pressure (2500 psi) and becomes a ballistic missle if you knock it over and the valve stem shears off. Since the bottle is 5 feet tall and solid cast steel, it tends to sail right thru walls.
–Wear only cotton clothes so they don’t ignite. If you do catch fire, try to pat it out, then use the shower and then use a fire extinguisher as a last resort.

So now to come up with a design for a sculpture that I’ll be trying to make for the next couple months. Hmmmm….

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On Tuesday, Matt, myself and Erik are all taking a sculptural welding class at MassArt. I can’t wait to get a torch in my hand and vaporize some metal.

The picture to the left is what Erik said he was going to build - that’s his backyard in Medford. (Recognize it - I hope?) I guess he’s trying to expose his neightbors to some culture. I’m not so specific on what I’ll do with it yet. (Gee - Dune buggies ARE kinda cool looking)

From the class;

This course provides an introduction to the construction of steel sculpture. Students will produce artworks using oxy-fuel, “stick”, MIG or TIG arc welding, and learn hot forging and a wide range of fabricating processes.

COOOOOOOL! Should be lots of great posting items from this!

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Here’s the good news. Cousin Ken is back from his deployment in Afghanistan! (see his picture below) We’re glad he’s back safe and sound.

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I was looking at Edward Tufte’s website and found a place where he answers questions about graphics. For those who don’t know Tufte, he a genius on the presentation of information. Google him if you want to know more.

Anyway I found a thread response by none other than John Walker, the founder of Autodesk! So I looked him up…

Most people who work at Autodesk are blissfully unaware of the company’s history and the attitude (and luck) that made Autodesk so successful initially. In fact, ADSK was once very much like Revit Technology as a startup.

But that is a whole other conversation and who cares. The point is Autodesk’s founder John Walker is one smart bastard. If you want an example…
read this or this.

He’s also kinda funny! In any case, I think myself and many others have this man to thank for most of our careers.

So, thanks man! …and I hope life as a balding geezer aint so bad

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Check out Music Plasma. Type in the name of an artist and it shows you a web of related artists and music. Cool! (Thanks to Robbin Capper’s blog where I found this tidbit)

Another interesting thing I found on his site is 3D Journal, a Cornell University reserach project. Another Cornell mindbender is The Santa Claus Machine. I won’t even try to explain it, but it is an even further evolution of the robotic stuff I listed a couple weeks ago.

An for all you architects out there, I think that this company is going to change the way everything gets done in the design business by bringing REAL manufacturing capability down to a price point everybody can afford.

So think about it and post your comments

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Martin, please import some of the the Tamyia robot kits you mention in your comment about Asimo when you make it to the US in February. Sounds too cool! On a side note, for my next toy, I want a Roland MDX20 CNC milling machine. It can be had for less than $5000.

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