Finished Cutting, Time To Sand

I am now entering the last week to work on the physical aspect of my project. After this week I am going to start working on a presentation to present the information, the experiences, and the product to my class. Being that the window is closing for working on the physical aspect of my project, I have been working extremely hard on the project in order to finish as much of the project as possible. Last weekend, I spent a solid hour cutting out all of the pieces for my gauntlet, including the thirty or so finger pieces. After the hour was over, all the pieces had been cut out, and my hands were so sore from using the cutting tool that I had to relax and ice my hands. I could not work on the physical aspects of the project anymore that weekend after that because everything I did hurt my hands immensely; however, now that I have had a week of focusing on other assignments and resting my hands, they no longer are sore, and I am able to continue the work for my project. This weekend I plan on trying to sand ALL of the pieces similar to how I cut out all of the pieces the weekend before. I also want to try punching out most if not all the holes in the pieces, shape the pieces, and then facet them together so that I can show off at least the gauntlet for my presentation.

Finishing up the Gauntlet

Last week I got the facets and facet tool so that I would be able to facet the pieces of my gauntlet together, and this week I got a manual hole punch that would allow me to punch holes into my metal pieces without having to use to drill. The reason I did this is because, after researching for a while, I found that because of the hardness of stainless steel and the amount of heat it generates, using drills for drilling holes into stainless steel is very ineffective. When drilling stainless steel, it takes a while to drill all the way through the metal because of its hardness. Because it takes a while, the metal has more time to generate heat. Because of the metal heats up a lot during the drilling, the drill bit begins to heat up as well, which usually causes the drill bit to bend or break. This makes the lifespan of drill bits much shorter, and one might need a new drill bit for every few holes drilled. The punch, however, does not build up heat anywhere near the extent of using a drill, is much quicker, and is much safer than using a drill.
Unfortunately for my project, my deadline has crept up on me, and I only have a few more weeks to "finish" it. I'll have to work very efficiently on all my work, even my work that does not relate to this project, so that I'll have as much time to work on my project as possible.

The Build: Working More Pieces + New Tools

As I thought, during Spring Break I was able to cut-out and sand a bunch more pieces, but I was not able to finish ALL the pieces. While working, I realised it would be much easier to cut holes into the metal pieces if I left them flat, and then after cutting the holes I would bend them to their desired shape. As well, I have been trying to find the best way to cut the holes into the metal pieces and find the best way of faceting the pieces together.

Over the break, I talked with my Mentor and together we went to a supply store to look for facets. There we found both facets and a facet gun that would make faceting the pieces together much, much easier.

I also found out that when dealing with stainless steel metal, drills do not work as well as with other metals, and the bits are easier to break when drilling. Over the break and this week, I found a type of hole puncher that is used to punch holes into metal and is recommended for using on stainless steel. I purchased the punch online, and it should be arriving in a few days, which would allow me to continue to the next step of building my gauntlet.