CRITICAL REVIEW: PROJECT 2

Project 2 was definitely a challenging experience that required groups of students to replicate a motorbike fuel tank shape from sheets of aluminium and little to no guidance from the tutors. To complete this task, I needed to incorporate all the skills learnt throughout the whole semester.

In industrial design, any hands-on skills are extremely valuable as it can be used to help communicate ideas and products through models. The closer the models are to the final product, the more effective they are in communicating ideas. With a lot of products being made of metal, aluminium is a good way to show potential clients that certain components are of a metallic material. Thus, this class and especially this project would prove to be useful in the future. This project taught me to how to use different tools, skills and techniques to create a desirable form.

When I started with project, I used many different techniques and tools to achieve a general shape. The sheet metal roller was used to create a curve that followed the general shape of the fuel tank and hammering with a plastic mallet against a sandbag was used to shrink and stretch the metal into the correct shape. An english wheel was also used to smooth out uneven surfaces.

However, most of the hammering was mindless bashing without a clear goal as oppose to being accurate and methodical with each strike. If I were to reattempt this project, this is definitely something I would change. Being methodical would allow me to make more progress whilst requiring less brute strength. I would go about this by identifying what areas of the metal need which technique and working on those sections individually to create a form closer to the final product. Splitting the side panel into 3 sections would seem to be the easiest way of achieving the best result. Treating the left and right side of the side panel as bowls and a torus in between to connect them would allow me to use previously learnt techniques to achieve the form needed for the project. Using this method to create the general shape would have made it much easier to conduct the next step of smoothing out the kinks in the surface for a clean look.

Something that I would also change is making more use of the dolly. The dolly would allow me to have more control over the rounded edges of the fuel tank as it is effective in stretching metal around tight corners. Hammering against the dolly would also allow me to flush out any blemishes that appeared after hammering the aluminium with the different wooden and plastic mallets.

Something I would have changed about my process is relying less on the English wheel to smooth out uneven surfaces. Although it did smooth out the surfaces, it undid a lot of the work I did with the hammer whilst also leaving long streak marks along the surface of the aluminium.

I am also glad that I didn’t make use of the shrinker during the making of my fuel tank. Although it would’ve saved me a lot of time with the hammering, I would leave shrink marks that are almost impossible to remove by hand and would also ruin the aesthetics of the tank.

Overall, this task was an enjoyable experience with lots to learn at every corner. Something that I will continue to remember and apply into my industrial design discipline is the skill to segment a piece and solve each puzzle individually.

THE FUEL TANK

The final project for this class was to create a motorbike fuel tank of sheet metal in groups of 9-10. This task was overall challenging, and required me to incorporate all the skills learnt throughout the whole semester. The fuel tank was a fun learning experience which was definitely difficult. However, I did find this slightly easier than the tray.

Process

One of the first things we did as a group was discuss different methods of reaching the end goal. Many processes were suggested such as:

• Hand making a 1:1 model of the fuel tank of layered MDF and hammer forming the sheet metal over it
• Using a CNC machine to create a female mould of the fuel tank and hammering into it like the blister

However, after long discussions and time constraints we decided to boycott these ideas as they were extremely time consuming and some of the equipment required were booked out. Therefore, we resorted to hammer forming sheet metal and referring back to the skeleton instead.

The overall process was fairly straight forward. However, there were a few bumps along the way. As a group, we decided to choose the third fuel tank to create as its form was more aesthetically pleasing and we wanted to avoid using photogrammetry as no one in the group had any experience in it.

The first issue we ran into was accessing the model of the fuel tanks. Each program we used to open the file provided would produce a bunch of guidelines for a non-existent loft.

After sorting this out, we got straight into laser cutting the components for the fuel tanks as this issue put us behind. Assembling the first skeleton of the tank proved to be difficult as not enough of a tolerance was provided and some pieces were missing.

After finally having a physical model, we had a long discussion on how to divide the tank into 3 different segments that were of the same size and similar difficulty. The group then argued over which sections of the tank they wanted to create. This was solved by drawing sheets of paper out of a hat which corresponded to one of the 3 sections of the fuel tank. I ended up with section 2 of the tank.

Metal Forming

Many different tools and various of techniques were used to produce the end result. Paper Templates were created and traced onto the metal to establish a general shape of the piece which was then cut using the guillotine.

This was then run through the sheet metal roller a couple times to create a general curve that followed the shape of the fuel tank. The plastic mallet was then used to start bending the metal into the correct shape. The techniques learnt from the bowl project were applied to create the curve at the back of the fuel tank. This was effective in creating the general form of the tank but also left a very bumpy and uneven surface finish.This was followed by a back and forth between the sandbag and skeleton to compare and get the sheet metal to closely resemble the finished piece.

After this I turned to the english wheel to smooth out the uneven surface. The surface of my section was now extremely smooth, however the english wheel undid 75% of the work and was now completely deformed and far off from the shape of the tank.

After seeking assistance from Daniel, he suggested using the dolly to stretch the metal around tight corners. This was very effective and also didn’t leave an uneven surface. He also suggested being strategical by identifying what areas of the metal need what technique instead of mindlessly bashing it into shape. He separated the sheet metal into 2 different “bowls” and a torus to connect them. This helped me visualise how to form the metal efficiently. I then used the dolly to better define the vertical curve of the torus. The dolly was also used to flush out any blemishes in the metal caused by the plastic mallet.

Overall, this task was an enjoyable experiences with lots to learn at every corner. Something that I will continue to remember and apply into my industrial design discipline is the skill to segment a piece and solve each puzzle individually.

THE BLISTER

The blister was the final and easiest task of the four. My peers advised me to make sure that the sheet of aluminium was secured down tightly so that it would not move as I hammered away at it. One of the issues I had with this task was that I had made the blister too deep and was hammering it against the table. This was fixed by using the vice to secure the piece in position and using the rounded end of the plastic mallet to round it out while suspended in the air. Another difficulty that I had come across was defining the edge on the tip of the blister and giving it depth. One of my peers told me to use a bit of scrap wood to reach in the tight corners and define those edges. This task took no time at all and was most definitely the easiest.

THE TRAY

This task looked to be a cake walk to begin with. However, it was, by far, the worst and most difficult. With the first two task being completed on the first attempt, the tray needed three. I found problems at every turn, especially when it came to rounding out the corners. Originally, I had planned to have the radius of the corners of the tray at 15 mm. However, I ended with many creases in the corners and had to scrap the whole thing. Through the recommendation of my peers, I decided to enlarge the radii to 25 mm. This made the task much easier, although there were other problems that arose. I managed to reduce the amount of creases I had on the corners and decided I was complete. However, my group member and I had two trays that were too different from each other and I decided to start again. This time, I followed my previous steps but still came out with creases at the corners. I decided to hammer the creases to the tips of each corner, allowing me to cut them off easily with the shears. Overall, this task was the most challenging and the least enjoyable.

THE TORUS

This task was quite intimidating when first introduced. However, as I moved into hammering the aluminium, I found that achieving the general shape and curves was quite easy. The only issue I had with the hammering was getting the aluminium to sit still around the stump as I was hammering at it. I combated this by putting the sheet material through the roller a couple times so that it would sit on the stump nicely without slipping out. Like the first task, I attempted to sand and polish the aluminium to get a nice finish. However there were too many dents and uneven surfaces, thus resulting in an uneven finish. This task was overall enjoyable and challenging.

THE BOWL

As the first task for Digital Making, I was unsure if I had the skills to be able to complete the set task. As I progress with the bowl, I became more confident with my skills and found the task quite easy. However, there were some things that I found difficult, such as coming to the correct radius and making sure the edge of the bowl was perfectly straight. Something that I also struggled with was achieving a clean finish on the bowl. Hammering the bowl to its general shape and using the English wheel to flush it out was something I found quite fun and managed to finish this part quickly and easily. Overall I found the task enjoyable and wouldn't mind revisiting this task in the future.