Originally my plan was to make a ring with writing engraved on it. This is one of those
seemingly simple ideas that is actually really hard to CAD. I couldn't write on a curved surface
and I also couldn't figure out how to bend my straight object. After a while, when the ring
wasn't working out, a friend of mine who was with me in the lab suggested I make a Dharmachakra, which
is an 8 pronged Buddhist wheel, so I did.
The mistakes don't end with the ring. For some reason the mill wouldn't spin when I would
upload my file, so it would start the tool path but not spinning, which split the block a
little. Also, even though I zero-ed my axis precisely, the mill cut was shifted so one of
the sides of my mold got cut out. I hot glued wooden sticks to the side of the mold for a
temporary fix. All these mistakes can be seen below.
I did not end up re-milling the cast for the mold because the wooden sticks actually turned out to be convenient
because I could take them off and get the mold out easier.
I cast with metal and the first time it was way too hot and also the oven mitt
had been burnt through so as I was pouring the metal my hand started to burn and
I ended up dumping a lot into the mold.
I repoured and spent time tapping the air bubbles out to get this final result.
**************warning! always wear eye protection! I know this is supposed to be a given
but when I was tapping the bubbles out the molten metal would fly surprisingly high. Also, when
I was sanding down the metal, the dustings flew erratically to the point where it got in my
eyes and I had to put on full goggles
