Over the past two weeks I have made considerable progress on the bank vault.  I spent a fair amount of time designing the piece in Google Sketchup and it paid off.  I was able to use Sketchup to figure out measurements down to the 1/32" of an inch, transfer those measurements to a template and use the template to make the shapes.

The first saw I purchased was off an 1/8" which may not seem like much, but when you need to make 16 cuts, it adds up to being 2" short!  After returning the first saw and buying another one everything has been going very smooth.

I made an octagon with 8 pieces that would be easy to carry.  I knew that the piece had to be able to be carried by me and then bolted together to create the finished work.  I cut out the pieces, aligned them on the floor and used a laser to find center.  I used this center mark to create a giant compass and drew and inside and outside circle.  Once the first one was cut and sanded I used it as a template for the rest.  I used a router with a trimming bit to "trace" the template.  This gave me 8 identical pieces.

The holes are there to provide access to the nuts and bolts when it's all assembled.

Starting assembly

Bolt detail.  The entire piece will disassemble.

Labels: CreateHere, F.A.M.P., MakeWork, mark mcleod, sculpture