The Water Cube in Beijing. http://www.bychinese.com/learn/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/121755123704-clip-image001.jpg I'm thinking of trying to do something similar for my upcoming case mod, but am having some problems coming up with a way to do it. The "honeycomb" isn't the hard part, its the "bubbles" that I'm drawing a blank on. What would you use to get the bubble effect? Acrylic seems to be my first instinct, but I'm not sure how you would get it to form correctly (odd shapes, irregular pattern). Thoughts?
I think it would look pretty cool to just cut different pieces of acrylic for each piece of the 'honeycomb'. However, you could experiment with milling out 1mm or so to create the shading on each piece(and thus the illusion of a bubble shape). I've done that before with some success. Another technique I've found is to use an engraving tool or similar dremel bit to mark the shaded area on the back side of the acrylic, allowing light to be filtered differently in that spot. If I remember to I'll try out some techniques on a scrap piece and post some pics.
That would work, but would require me to make a different mold for every single bubble. Not to practical, but it looks great for shaping just 1 or two pieces. That might be the best I could hope for. I really would like to have the "honeycomb" bubble outwards, but it could be that it just isn't doable without insane amounts of work
what about bubbles of hot glue? if you made sure the glue was clean you would get nice clear bubbles.
It sounds to me like dremeling them out would work well. If you had each of them cut to shape and assembled, then you could clip it over and gouge out a spot where you wanted it to be 'lighter' and then go at the back side with some sand paper to smooth out the hole and fade it back up to full thickness.
No, the guy who posted the press mold had the right idea. What you would need to do is make the web pattern out of MDF, sharpen the edges, and attach the backside to a sealed box attached to a shop vac. Instead of each bubble, do a whole sheet. The tricky part will be making the panels so that the bubbles match up at the edges.
I'd also have to find an oven big enough. I'm not sure mine would hold sheets big enough to do it with. Something to think about though
1,000 years ago when I was young there was a toy that vacuum formed small cars to play with. I have seen vacuum tables made with a sheet of pegboard and a shop vac like Cheaps says. Make a master mold, clamp some plexi in a wooden frame, heat it in the oven till soft and squash it down over a wooden form. The Vacuum formers are probably all gone now, but the heat and press method should give you a single piece or maybe like 3 in a row? john
If you know the size of each panel, you can make sure your pseudo random pattern has repetition at appropriate intervals. Or, to make life a little easier, you could do some experimenting with how much repetition you're comfortable with and ensure that the edges all work for the pattern. If you spend a some time on it, I'm sure you'd be able to come up with a decent pattern on a reasonable plate size that would work in any orientation, thereby giving you a much more variety in your patterning. As for the final fab, I'd probably go for an easy original (possibly MDF), then either vacuum form or create a mould and cast in clear resin. Either could be modified colour-wise after forming or casting with gentle washes of colour on the reverse and an appropriate base colour for either method could be selected beforehand (i.e. by choosing the colour of the vacu-plastic or adding a dye to the resin).
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-good,-cheap,-upgradeable-sheet-plastic-vacu/ Or just make your own vaccum form table.
