there's not really a whole heck of a lot going on this week. i've been getting my "work bench" set up, although i have not actually gotten any word DONE. mostly i've been laying the ground work. i got the apartment pretty much as clean as it has ever been, which is a good thing since i'm stuck in this place most of the time now. i did get out today for lunch with my friend margaret. i really miss all of the old gang from work, and i really enjoy being able to see people when i can. i've found that between a couple of lunch dates a week and the weekly poker game i host i've been able to stay in touch with a lot of people, even if all we do is complain about the lack of another project to move on to, and how completely unavoidable that could have been... but i digress. i've been getting my gym time in, although i'm still hating it. but the gears are starting to turn and i can see myself beginning to be a bit more productive. i've got 2 projects that i am going to be focusing on thru the end of the year. one should be a breeze, the other a big pain in the arse, but hopefully well worth it.
i'm trying to talk myself in/out of buying the sherline mill with a DRO that i have been wanting to get for about 3 years. it would certainly be a lifesaver for doing side work, but i really don't know how much of that i'll be doing over the next few months. i am tending to think that if the answer to that question is "some" than it will save me a lot of heartache and pain to go ahead and bite the bullet and get the thing. i've been using a sherline lathe base and attaching the headstock to a vertical milling column that essentially converts your lathe into a mill. it works fine, but the lathe base is not ideal for milling operations, AND it is a pain to go back and forth between modes. not to mention, the DRO would really make repeatable operations a lot more reliable. if only i had a bunch of money sitting around. think i need to ebay some stuff.
in coraline news, a few more boxes showed up last week. check out the matrix to the right. still less than half of the 50 boxes have been discovered. on that note, the coraline website has gone into a new phase, so to speak. instead of having to enter a bunch of different passwords to see the video content you can now just enter the password: OTHERWORLD and get access to all of the previous videos as well as a few more. i like these new ones a lot. you get to talk with my old supervisor jeannie about chopping up cats. they talk to brad schiff about breaking puppets (we make 'em, you break 'em!). they talk to ollie jones about rigging, and the places they look for inspiration. finally trey thomas talks about why he loves animating women. he is definitely amazing at it. for you NMBC fans, trey animated the bulk of the sally shots in that film. i hope you enjoy the new clips.
p.s. i finished the wire last weekend, and i gotta say: A+
11 comments:
I thought all you animators ever watch is animation. And you call yourself a 'true' animator? Shame, Jeremy. SHAME.
It is possible to do simple milling in the lathe with out reconfiguring it significantly.
I've also recently seen an "instructable" which looked at adding a digital readout to a lathe or you could use a dial gauge in a similar manner.
Jeremy
Forget the Mill with DRO, max out your credit card and get the Sherline CNC mill. It's hella cool.
Still a DRO is a big improvement.
Hey I have been watching some of the behind the scene Coraline clips and noticed some of the puppet holders look an awful lot like your watch sculpt claws.
Hmmmm - nice
Mark
ahhh, mark. not sure about the CNC thing just yet. (what credit card?) where's the fun in CNC? we can't let computers take away ALL the fun stuff. i think if it comes to that scale of work i'll just do the designs and pay for them to be machined elsewhere.
good eye on those claws! when the guys came in to film those spots i didn't have a ton of stuff going on, so i was available to built them a bunch of different setups of arm configurations with claws, pointy pokers, and pinchers and stuff like that. i used a bunch of my own parts because... well, they look cooler! most of those clips are great little films in their own right.
Ya, I know what you mean about the CNC thing. It opens up a whole world of possibilities design wise, but the set up and especially the learning curve make it a whole lot slower for a few parts.
Sadly machine shops are a dime a dozen and that industry is hurting like a lot of other manufacturing busniesses, should be easy to find someone to crank out your designs when your ready.
What's the deal - you camera shy? I checked out the "well" site on Coraline.com and didn't catch a peep of ya.
That short clip of Olie Jones is great, I really dig that blade of grass moving rig. Can't quite figure it out from the blurry video, but the movement is just great. Turning the dog toy into a flower opener is clever as heck - oh what fun!
mark, you've really gone and done it now. i can't stop thinking about doing a CNC rig now... thanks a lot. big step, though. probably will hold off for a while. we use a great shop around town for machining joints and i have been tinkering with some CAD designs of my own. i'm not even going to think about getting a CNC setup until i've got the designs down pat.
as for the pics... sadly i am not to be found. maybe there will be more to come? i'm pretty sure i'll be in the book, if that's any consolation. i could potentially end up all over the place on the dvd actually, but i think there are more than enough pretty girls around to make for a much better behind the scenes disc without me!
Sorry about putting that CNC bug in your head, let me help.
repeat after me...
The old ways are the best ways... the old ways are the best ways.
The nice thing about the sherline mills is you can always retrofit it to CNC later.
Ya its a big step and it sure sucked a lot of my free time, little of that there is. Cause you really will want a CAD program, then a CAM program unless you want to spend all day doing G-code. Simple stuff is easy, but the cool fun roundy, curvy shaped things take a bit more. I guess really you could design in the CAM program and save the CAD step.
Now I start to sound like a commercial. Must repeat The old ways are the best ways...
Mark
I'm working with a sherline mill + lathe (with DROs)... Figuring out a good workflow for making quantities of step block joints right now.
What machines do you have in the workshop currently? Been wondering that ever since you posted the pocket watch beast. :P
i made that watch guy using the standard 4500 lathe with the vertical milling attachment. it was okay. not super sturdy because the base is much smaller than the milling base would be. plus i had a hard time controlling plunge cuts with a ball end mill on the z-axis. if i talk myself into getting the mill with DROs i think that will be a big improvement all around. i really don't have anything set up at the moment since i am transitioning back into actually not having access to all that stuff at work. i really want a nice drill press right now, but i can't justify spending the money of the cameron micro drill press we had at work. i think i'm going to order the little sieg X1 mill/drill and just use it as a drill press. should be fine. with that, the lathe, and the eventual DRO mill, i should be set up pretty well to do stupid little projects at home. as i said, i think any major multiples i'll just farm out.
oh yeah, mark. i forgot to add this earlier... if you liked THAT video of ollie jones, then you'll LOVE this one even more. he's going to kill me.
OMG, I was laughing my ass off. That is truly funny.
I do have to say after watching most of it - Mr Jones has some moves. GET DOWN!
I think this should be sent in to Dancing with the Stars or some other talent show.
Watch your back buddy.
mark
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