Unobtanium We get to work with some interesting materials in our various projects. Aside from various alloys of aluminium and brass we...
Unobtanium
We get to work with some interesting materials in our various projects. Aside from various alloys of aluminium and brass we've worked with titanium, carbon-fibre, meahanite and that's without getting into the weird and wonderful world of hardwoods and textiles.A recent project which you'll see a write up on soon, however, needed something a bit special. In keeping with on-trend metallics we're doing something a bit "special" with an industrial light and the design calls for a bespoke ceiling mounting made from copper. Copper is a pain to machine, there's lots of folklore around special lubricants, unique feeds/speeds, special tooling but it all comes down to the same thing; pain.
This is why we ended up ordering some tellurium copper - this is special alloy of copper that incorporates tellurium to make it more machinable. For us, titanium is now passé and carbon-fibre is distinctly last century
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| TeCu, Telco, Tellurium Copper |
Maker's Mark
We've been looking into various marking systems recently. We'd really like to add something to our bespoke work that ties it back to us. It's not only potentially useful when relating something back to an original commission or design but it's also a neat design element in itself.There are many systems out there; laser, inkjet (or other printing technologies), label printers, engraving but none quite resonated with us. In the end the solution has been surprisingly simple and appropriately retro; letter and number stamps. These are hardened steel punches which you literally whack with a hammer and they leave an impression on the part.
For some parts we'll mark them in a hidden area but in others we'll definitely make them an overall feature of the design.
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| Making our mark? |
3, 2, 1 : A Week In Numbers
- 30,000 - the number of eBay auctions skimmed
- 25 - the weight, in kilos, of the swarf cleaned out of the lathe
- 10 - hours of "virtual" CAD for the Holophane ceiling mounting
- 5 - months the estimated wait for the "shop-truck"
- 3 - the number of phases we need for a new machine
- 1 - the number of eBay auctions bid on
Blasted!
If you've peeked at the The Pipeline: Warm Welcome and solved our pretty obvious clue this will not be a spoiler; we've got these very unusual cast iron radiators which we'll be incorporating into a design project very shortly.They have a bit too much in the way of authentic patina/barn-find dust/rust and so they've been off to the blasters. We've found a great company that really understands the process, how the process can affect different materials and how the choice of media can mitigate the risk of distortion and pitting.
Not only that but they've proved very reliable and a genuine pleasure to work with even when we show up with something bizarre and expect them to blast it.
We knew the radiators were unusual but when another company who spends a lot of time blasting radiators and has pretty much seen all the types readily admits they've never seen anything like you know you're onto a good thing.
This will be an interesting project and we're really looking forward to sharing the results with you.
This Week's Obsession
Cutipol Duna matt copper cutlery - we're really liking this. They do matt gold and black as well but for us the copper ticks all the boxes. We believe these would go really well with the Marimekko dishware we highlighted last week. |
| Even cutlery can be on-trend metallic |
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- Seven Days? You What? I mean, pardon?
- These posts give us a chance to recap on the last week at Bokoshoko and give you a glimpse of what's happening. Many of our projects take time to come to fruition or our customers would prefer we did not share so these posts also show we're not just sitting around!
