Ardes Modellbau

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So… about that storm of homework… 3 big projects, 2 little weeks and the computer is not being cooperative.
My big design project, the one I’m designing with the product design department and in cooperation with Melitta, has a final design, at long last, and in order to have a final model to show off, our teacher, Herr Kampe, arranged a pretty sweet deal with a modellbau (a workshop) that’s in Nürnberg (about an hour south of here). So, along came Saturday the 23rd and I carpooled down to the place with a few other students to jump into model making. I was totally flying by the seat of my pants, because I had no idea how I was even going to begin with this thing… it was supposed to turn out as a rubber placemat with a computer screen set into it!
Alexander Grämer, the owner and head operator of the Ardes Modellbau, helped me out in no time flat figuring out what to do, and I made slow, but serious and well informed headway to come out with the final product after 2 full weekends of work at it. In fact, the final Sunday, he left about 9pm and offered breakfast to anyone still awake and working the following morning! Anyhow, I am greatly indebted to him for all the help; I most certainly can’t use a gravity-feed spray gun with that sort of dexterity!

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Photos

Herr Grämer has some of the coolest toys
That's the biggest damn tablesaw E-V-E-R.

Me using the 'Frizi'
That's german slang for a router. And an overhead-mounted one, too! (oh, I know, now I'm turning into a tech nerd...)

Here's Tim hard at work on the lathe
Kinda looks like a party with a lot of confetti, huh?

End of day 1
I have the basic forms cut out. It may not seem like much, but that's cuz you can't see my awesome sanding job.

More toys
A totally cool lathe, it had every bell and whistle I could think of.

Gettin' closer...
still a lot to do, but I finally have all the basic forms!

And the placemat part is, too.
It's awful purty. It really is a shame it had to die.

The placemat mold in full swing
and a bewildered Conny looking on.

And now it just looks like a mess, frankly
but it's a calculated one, I swear.

Getting the saucer mold into 2 pieces
again, no idea what I was doing, I let the man at it.

The placemat mold is almost ready to go
...this is the part where the original died.

Now all we have to do is put plenty of pressure on it to keep the two sides in place!
I had to take the whole thing home and wait until the following day to pull it out of the mold again, in the comfort of my own dorm room. I'll include pictures of the end product in the next blog.