Connie Pike on wed 18 oct 00
Hello from Bob Pike High River Alberta Canada. With the
Rocky
Mountains from horizon to horizon to the West and crisp blue sky as
far as you can see to theEast.
First Posting.
I am a full time potter sculptor. Have had my own studio since
1973.
Am kind of an inventor and build equipment and tools. I do 3D computer
art and have been developing the process of complex designed clay
extrusion for the past 20 years using a pug mill extruder built by
myself.
Most of what I have done is directly influenced by the fact that I
have multiple chemical sensitivities and have big problems working
with clay directly due to the mold. I did a part in =93 The Extruder
Book=94 for Daryl Baird on how I make my complex extruder dies. My
wife, Connie and I do our own separate work in clay and I have just
finished setting up our studio for jiggering with a Radcliff jigger
machine (what an incredible amount of work that was). I consulted
with Jonathan Kaplan about some of the problems I was having with
Jiggering and he helped me out. He asked me about my system for
making dies by laser cutting and I thought there may be others out
there who could use this information. so---------To make a jigger die.
I use a blue Mac G3 300Mghz computer and love it. I first draw
a design for a die on paper and scan it into the computer. I open a
new file in Adobe Illustrator and bring in the scan. I then change
the scanned image into a template. Next I draw over the image with
the drawing tool being very careful that all lines are joined. I
draw the perimeter of the die and connect it to the design. Then add
mounting holes etc. ( I now have 6 different die patterns for the
various dies I need to make, and these are kept on file. I just
bring them in as needed and join them to the art work) After a die
is complete this file is =91put through=92 a translation program called
'Bezarc' by Kandu software.( phone-540 8393488 or
kssales@kandusoftware.com Approx. $400) This program translates
Illustrator files into DXF or DDES2 files that are needed for laser
cutting. Just upload the files to your friendly laser cutter and you
now have dies cut out of 3/16 =93 steel. I use 1/2=94 poly carbonate to
face the leading edge of the die and bevel it about 30 Degrees.
These dies should last a very long time.
After the cost of the software was behind me, I pay about $25.00
per die to cut., Before purchasing the Bezarc software, I was paying
$250.00 minimum per die. ( Extrusion dies)
There is an extruded mural and some extruded tiles on our web
site along with Connie's pottery and Some of my 'Bryce' 3D images.
I hope this information is useful to some of you.
Bob and Connie Pike
High River, Alberta
pikec@cadvision.com
http://www.pikestudios.com
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