you would naturally have to frame and clamp it to put it in the oven but you would have much better temp control and a homogenous temperature would much less likely to have optical distortion. Lexan is pretty tough and has a rather thin temperature band between pliable and bubbles it resists stretching quite well from what I have seen In my limited experience. BUT what you have done would appear to be a working solution, congratulations, well done. not a task to be entered into lightly.
You could hang your head in shame while the others dance about chanting nanny-nanny-boo-boo.
Or not…
Nice! I’m looking forward to this class today
3 Likes
Fire Breathing Pumpkin
(If you want to see the video, I uploaded it to the member’s drive in the folder “Phil Davis” - the video is named “Fire Breathing Pumpkin 2019”)
It’s become a tradition every year to carve pumpkins with the family. This year I decided to take my pumpkin to the next level…and have it breath fire!
This is not a completely original idea and you can find many designs if you surf the web, but I got it working tonight and I thought I share a few photos and a brief description. But first, there is danger involved, so if you decide to do something yourself, please don’t do anything you’re not 100% comfortable doing.
The idea started when I noticed on a can of Glade Air Freshener the innocuous statement “Contains Acetone.” That got me thinking. What’s great about automatic air freshener spray cans is you get one blast per depression, unlike other cans of flammable materials that spray as long as the nozzle is depressed. So, one blast of scented acetone + one flame = one fire ball. YES!
The base was 3D printed to hold the can, to allow a solenoid to be mounted, hold a short piece of conduit (on top of which a small votive candle was mounted) and mount another 3D printed pivot support for the actuator bar. The actuator bar connects to the solenoid, has a small adapter to connect to the spray nozzle and connects to the 3D printed pivot support. A small aluminum nozzle extender and heat shield were added to prevent flames from getting back to the can and/or any of the 3D printed parts.
The solenoid came from a Volkswagen car door lock mechanism and I built a control box from a electrical box and a couple of switches - one to enable the unit and a momentary toggle switch to trigger one blast of fire - I decided on human control for safety reasons. The pumpkin carving was different in that I cut a hole in the bottom rather than the top, so it can set over the flame thrower.
Here are a few pictures…
View from the Front
View from the Back:
Control Box
I expect to see some surprised faces on Halloween night!
18 Likes
That rocks!
Which glow in the dark vinyl brand did you use? That looks great.
V-carve cnc carving 4x10 in edge grain mesquite. Kind of reminded me of a Boris Vallejo Heavy Metal magazine style robot girl so I had to do it. Hope you like it. cheers!
create everyday.
8 Likes
I forged some double hooks to make some hangers for my garage. 1/4” steel rod and a flamed scrap pine board.
We made similar hooks at a Beginning Blacksmithing class a few months back.
17 Likes
I was commissioned to make a leather holster from the Uncharted 1 game from veg tan leather. I patterned, and prepared the leather at home, sewed the smaller bits by hand, and finished the long runs on the Thor (thanks for the class @matthshooter 
). The brand on the back was sintered from stainless steel off-site (shapeways) and embossed using the arbor press in the machine shop.
Made by me, Kenneth Polly
21 Likes
Well done! Always difficult to get long straight runs to be perfectly straight, you did a great job on that!
2 Likes
Made a jig to weld together a boat load of target stands for my old uspsa club. Jig needs refinement, but it works great until I can make another one. Thanks to @malcolmputer and Charles (who’s talk handle I forgot) for helping me machine the fixture.
9 Likes
That would be @procterc
2 Likes