PhotonFanatic
Flashlight Enthusiast
I've always liked the art of Piet Mondrian, especially his later works. This one, in particular, inspired me to pay homage to the artist by trying to incorporate his pattern on a titanium light:
I started working on this light about a year ago, but I realized along the way that duplicating Mondrian's painting was not going to be that easy on a manual lathe.
I tried some test pieces in AL, just to see what I would encounter, giving various cutting tools a chance to do the grooves. Eventually I opted for the 90-degree included angle engraving bits in carbide. And then I spent hours upon hours, diagramming the lines and the sequence of cutting them. In the end, I had invested so much time, that I decided to try for three pieces, instead of just one.
Here's the cutting of the vertical grooves in progress:
As you can see, I opted to cut all the vertical segments first, then I added the horizontal, or circumferential, grooves:
Need I say that paying attention so that the horizontal grooves were precisely aligned with the vertical grooves was imperative? :devil:
So, after some passage of time, I did manage to complete six pieces with the pattern. They are shown here, screwed together, prior to further processing:
My intent with the Mondrians was that all of them would eventually be anodized, so that the colors at least matched the pattern of the original painting, albeit with the colors that anodizing Ti produces, and not those of oil paint.
But upon seeing one in bare Ti, my customer asked for one without anodizing, so I decided to do the matte finish that I had used on a previous light, since it provides a nice contrast between the grooves and the blocks:
The light is not perfect, nothing that is machined on a manual lathe ever is, but overall, I was pleased to complete the first Mondrian. There will be two more, one that will be highly polished bare Ti, and the final one will have the anodized blocks.
And that's enough homage to Mondrian to last me for some time. I wonder how long it took Piet to do that painting??
I started working on this light about a year ago, but I realized along the way that duplicating Mondrian's painting was not going to be that easy on a manual lathe.
I tried some test pieces in AL, just to see what I would encounter, giving various cutting tools a chance to do the grooves. Eventually I opted for the 90-degree included angle engraving bits in carbide. And then I spent hours upon hours, diagramming the lines and the sequence of cutting them. In the end, I had invested so much time, that I decided to try for three pieces, instead of just one.
Here's the cutting of the vertical grooves in progress:
As you can see, I opted to cut all the vertical segments first, then I added the horizontal, or circumferential, grooves:
Need I say that paying attention so that the horizontal grooves were precisely aligned with the vertical grooves was imperative? :devil:
So, after some passage of time, I did manage to complete six pieces with the pattern. They are shown here, screwed together, prior to further processing:
My intent with the Mondrians was that all of them would eventually be anodized, so that the colors at least matched the pattern of the original painting, albeit with the colors that anodizing Ti produces, and not those of oil paint.
But upon seeing one in bare Ti, my customer asked for one without anodizing, so I decided to do the matte finish that I had used on a previous light, since it provides a nice contrast between the grooves and the blocks:
The light is not perfect, nothing that is machined on a manual lathe ever is, but overall, I was pleased to complete the first Mondrian. There will be two more, one that will be highly polished bare Ti, and the final one will have the anodized blocks.
And that's enough homage to Mondrian to last me for some time. I wonder how long it took Piet to do that painting??
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