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Doubtless you’ll be as breathless and excited over this one as I am. These three seemingly inoccuous blocks of aluminum have tremendous potential, at least they do for me. They’re tools to be used in the making of rolling ball sculpture. These were designed by the sculptor Matthew Gaulden, and constructed in conjunction with his machinist. These hold 1/8″ wire when building an RBS, and Matt says they cut down his construction time by 20%. Building these sorts of sculptures is very time-consuming, so any way to cut down some of that is welcome, particularly when it’s an annoying detail like getting track spacing consistent. Personally, I’d rather spend my time developing some new track element, like a lift that’s shaped like a ferris wheel or something. Track spacing? Not exactly my idea of ultimate creativity.
One side note here: They don’t make copper in 1/8″ diameter. These clamps are to be used with steel wire. This means they have to be welded isntead of soldered. Previously, everything I’ve done has been soldered copper. I have a crappy little welder with which I have cobbled together one or two things. This is effectively a move toward making some construction changes. I don’t know when you’re all going to see some results, but it occurred to me that sitting around thinking about how I didn’t know how to weld my sculptures was not getting me any closer to being able to weld. This, this is a step forward. Stay tuned here for details on how I manage to botch my welding in the future.
I’m glad you’re still into the RBS thing. It’s something that both fascinates and eludes me. Love the sculpture part of it, and the rolling ball part of it, but exact measurements of things is where you lose me. I’m not sure what a diameter is.
Diameter is how big around it is as measured straight through the middle, so if you cut a piece of wire straight in half and measured the end of the cut straight through it would be an eighth of an inch across. It’s basicall like saying “It’s an eighth of an inch thick.”
This is getting cool. It’s already moving ahead. I was at dad’s talking about this stuff, and he goes, “I have this welder someone gave me, and I don’t think I’m going to use it. You can have it, and if I need it I’ll borrow it back.” So, it’s nothing super fancy, but it’s much nicer than the one I had. Now I have a welder! Danger, Will Robinson! He has tools!