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Showing posts from August 25, 2013

Project #35 Square Pumpkins

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Square pumpkins are a thing. You basically grow the pumpkin in a clear box and the pumpkin takes the shape of the box. I'm sure there is more to it than that but I'm currently working on that premise. I have a veg plot and some pumpkins and a way to make clear plastic boxes so I thought I would give it a shot. The box is made from 5mm acrylic sheet, 3 of them. They should be sturdy enough to resist the slow onslaught of growth from a pumpkin. Because acrylic sheet is fairly expensive (£8 a sheet) I decided to cut a prototype of the box first. This is where different material thicknesses really win out, I used 2mm mdf and simply scaled the box down to 40% of it's original size. The test piece worked fine first time and although it was a slightly snug fit the full size version worked a treat too. ( svg here ) 35 Projects/ 44 weeks

The wood of difference

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I've had a few repeat orders recently, in particular this large wooden box. Obviously people saw the 'white' box (on the right) made with HPC laser ply and I have since made a box with the 'orange' HPC ply (on the left). In the middle is SLECUK Lite Ply, it's a bit more brown but it charred a lot while cutting. I had to sand all the work down again afterwards. I've got some Hobbarts laser ply arriving soon so will see if that is any good, in the meantime the hunt for an alternate source of laser ply continues.