ASO MILL Blog

Customer request - Pokemon Ball! ポケモンボール

2024-03-19 by David

ご近所の子供が3Dプリンターを見て、何か作りたかったらしいです!このポケモン用ボールをお願いしましたので、次の日にペイントして、完成品はこんな感じでした:



▲ A couple of neighbourhood kids (10 and 7-ish, I think) popped in at the weekend, and asked if they could see the printers working. They asked if I could make them a quick something, and settled on this Pokemon Masterball. Printed in pieces, and painted the next morning, they seemed quite happy with the finished ball!

 


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Leather book cover 古い本の修理

2023-12-29 by David

古い本が大好きです!古い雰囲気の本も好きだけど、本物の革じゃないからダメになりますね。

A little winter project this year was to re-cover and repair a gigantic olde-world-style book.



▲ この素敵な本を15年ほど前から持ったけど、偽物革がダメになったんです。ということは今回のプロジェクトは本の修理です!カバーを外して、本革で新しいカバーを作ります。まったく経験はゼロですが、YouTubeのビデオを見ながら修理できるかなぁ?

 

I've had this book for about 15 years (it's a collector's edition of a wargames rulebook), but unfortunately the fake leather used for the covers has aged badly, to the extent that it crumbles off in your fingers when you pick it up.

 

So I decided to try re-covering it in real leather, bought from the craft section of a local DIY store. A big piece of leather cost 2200 yen, and that's about my only expense for this project, other than time. Right, time to watch some how-to videos on YouTube, as I've never done this before!





▲ まずはカバーを切って外しました。

 

First job was to carefully cut off the old covers and spine.





▲ 古いカバーのボードも新しく作らないといけないので同じ大きさを図りました。

 

The old cover was firmly attach to the thick boards, so I had to recreate those too.





▲ 100円ショップで買ったスケッチ用のパッドの裏面ボードを使いました。結構厚いボードですので十分固いと思います。

 

I found some thick card on the back of big sketchpads from the 100 yen shop, and cut that to the same size as the old versions.





▲ 今回、本の背表紙に文字を入れたいです。3Dプリンターで幅2~3ミリの文字をプリントして、そしてネガティブ文字も作りました。ネガティブ文字は強く押す用のプレートになりますが文字の周りに2ミリほど隙間が必要です。この2ミリ隙間は革の厚みで決まっています。

 

I also wanted to include some extra decorative touches for this book, in the form of embossed letters along the spine. So I turned once again to my trusty 3D printer, and printed some thin letters on a thin (0.2mm!) backing card. I also printed the negative shapes for those letters, with an extra 2mm of space around each letter to allow for the thickness of the leather. This negative would act as a stamp press to better define the letters.





▲ 文字と四角に木材ボンドをブラッシュしました。

 

Right time to emboss the leather. I brushed wood glue into all the nooks and crevices of the letter plate, before placing that underneath the leather (on the reverse side).





▲ そして、ボンドを付けた文字を革の裏面に張って、正面にネガティブのプレートを置きます。

 

The negative shape is then placed on the opposite side of the leather, directly above the letters gluing underneath.





▲ その後、24時間ほどクランプと木材で固く押しました。

 

Then it's simply a matter of pressing the negative shape down hard onto the surface of the leather, clamping it in place for 24 hours or so and leaving the glue to dry.





▲ クランプを外した時にこんな感じになったんです。なんか嬉しい!

 

It was quite exciting the next morning to unclamp the leather and remove the negative shape.... to find these embossed letters!! That worked beautifully! Thank you, YouTube!





▲ 次はカバーと裏面用のボードも木材ボンドで張りました。ボードの周りに3センチほど余った皮で切りました。

 

Okay, now we move onto gluing the large front and back boards onto the underside of the leather. These were clamped down and left to dry. A 3cm border of leather was left around each board, and cut at 45 degrees for the corners (2mm away from the board corners, to account for the thickness of the leather).





▲ その3センチの余った皮に木材ボンドを付けて、ボードに曲がりました。これもひとつづつで強く押しました。

 

Next I carefully folded each side of the 3cm leather borders over, and glued them onto the underside one by one. Clamps and strong pressure are also useful for this step!





▲ 4つのサイドも同じように曲がった後、こんな感じでした。

 

With all four sides folded over and glued down, my cover looked like this.





▲ あとちょっとです!100ショップで買った黒い用紙を内側に張りました。

 

I used 2 large sheets of black paper glued down on the inside of each cover side, to hide the joins a little.





▲ 本の背表紙は最後に木材ボンドとクランプで強く押しました。

 

The spine of the boox pages was liberally brushed with wood glue and clamped down against the spine cover for 24 hours. Not a fast process, this!





▲ カバーの内側と本の背表紙に隙間が空いていましたので、こっちにも黒い用紙を張りました。

 

I used another couple of strips of black paper to hide the gaps between the covers and inside covers.





▲ あとは飾りだけでした。古いカバーから外されたレジン性飾りを新しいカバーに付けました。これも木材ボンドで付けた。

 

With the new cover now glued in place, it was time to prettify the book! I carefully reassembled this gorgeous resin hammer motif which came from the original cover, and glued it in place with more wood glue and clamps.





▲ 最後に、Alibabaから注文した真鍮コーナーパーツを付けました。これで完成!

 

The last step was to add these brass corner protectors, which I found on AliExpress for a couple of dollars (for a pack of 10!). A great match for the brass-effect hammer on the front.





▲ どうですか?文字と真鍮パーツも好きし、革の匂いも素敵です!

 

All finished!  I'm pretty proud of how well that turned out - it really looks like a quality book. Smells great too!





▲ 大成功だ!やった。

 

Onto the next project.....

 


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Making small tables 小さいテーブル作成

2023-12-22 by David

今月新しい模型を作っています。ただし、結構大きいですので、スタジオにあるテーブルがちょっと足りないみたいです!

 

The new 3D printing design I'm currently working on in the studio is the Samurai Lord's House, and it covers a massive 120cm x 120cm area! So it looks like I'll need to build some extra tables to give it enough space to be assembled.





▲ 既に90cmx120cmテーブル2台ありますので、合わせたら大きい180cmx120cmテーブルも利用できますが今回小さい90cmx60cmテーブルを作成します。組み合わせは自由に使いたいです。

 

1x4パインで2個のフレームを作りました。

 

I already have a couple of bigger 90cm x 120cm tables already, which can be placed together to make a very large 180cm x 120cm table. But this time I wanted to make two smaller 90cm x 60cm tables, which can be placed separately around the studio as display tables, too!

 

So I started with some cheap 1x4 pieces of pine, laid on top of the existing larger table to make sure the dimensions matched. This produced 2 tabletop 'frames'.





▲ フレームの中に2x4の太い補強を入れました。

 

Two thicker 2x4 beams were screwed inside the frames, lifted up enough to fit more 1x4s later.





▲ 次の工事は足ですね。他のテーブルと同じように足を2x4で作りました。

 

Next it's time to create some simple legs. I decided to make these simple box shapes from 2x4s, so that the tables would match the shape of the existing tables. Perhaps overkill in terms of wood, but never mind!





▲ 四角の足を2x4でつなぎました。

 

Two leg squares were connected for each table, with a thick 2x4 beam on each side.





▲ フレームを足に付けました。

 

The tabletop frames were then screwed down onto the leg structure, to make sturdy tables.





▲ 最後には卓上を1x4で切って、フレームに木材ボンドで固定しました。

 

The last phase of construction was to cut 1x4s to make the table tops. I just glued these down inside the frames, because they won't be taking much weight.





▲ それで完成ですが、デザイン性はもうちょっとレベルアップにしたいです。

 

And there we have it - two completed mini tables!

 

.... but now I need your ideas!?

 

I'd like to make the tables a little fancier by carving a couple of small designs into the table surfaces. Any suggestions?



▲ この写真は過去に作ったテーブルです。ファンタジーのテーマでインテリアを作りましたので、この柄をルータで書きました。今回も同じような方法で何かの柄を入れたいですね。柄はまだわからないんですが。。。

 

This is a large twin-tailed comet motif I carved into a full-sized gaming table a few years back, when I was making a fantasy-themed gaming room. It looked pretty nice when finished and wood-stained, so that's why I'm keen to try again on these smaller tables.

 

If you have any suggestions, please drop them in the comments below? Thanks!






▲ 冬のプロジェクトはこれです - 大きい模型です!大分県臼杵市の稲葉家下屋敷の模型ですので、結構広い!

 

Last photo for today - this is the Samurai Lord's House project I'm currently working on, based on the Inaba Residence in Usuki City, Oita prefecture. It's a biggie!!

 


Tags: アトリエ  studio 




Happy Halloween 2023!!

2023-10-31 by David

今年の春に引っ越ししたので、秋になるとハロウィーンの季節が来ました。ただし、阿蘇のほうではイベントはなさそうですのでAsoMillでパーティーをしようとしました!

 

1週間前ほどから飾り作成を始めました。。。

 

It's my first Halloween here since moving to Aso in the spring, so I decided to go a bit nuts with the halloween decorations and host a proper party in the house! Strangely, it's a house well suited to looking a bit weird......





▲ まずはPUMPKIN飾りですね。もちろん3Dプリンターで作りました。今回、早くプリントできるために「花瓶モード」を初めて使いました。このぐらいの大きさでプリントすると約24時間以上かかりますが、「花瓶モード」を使うと約2時間かかります。その代わりに、とても弱くなります。まぁ、いいか ー 飾りだけですね。

 

その後ろの壁に紙でできている血の飾りや風船なども用意しました。

 

I started gathering cheap decorations well in advance, and even splashed out on a roll of orange PLA filament, to print all these pumpkins. This was my first time using "vase mode" on my 3D printers, which is a mode that only prints one single layer around the perimeter of a shape. The disadvantage is that this makes objects super flimsy and prone to breaking (and misprints), but it cuts the print time from over 24 hours for a normal print of this size, to just about 2 hours. So in the 3 days prior to the party, I was able to print all these pumpkins, which looked great dotted around the house.

 

The rest of the decorations were done on almost zero-budget, from the 100-yen store for balloons etc, and many sheets of coloured paper for creepy blood drops and paper chains.





▲ 庭に偽物墓を余っていたサイディングから作りました。名前が全部Englishジョークでしたね。このゾンビ―手もプリンターで作りました。


I cut and painted 5 of these fake gravestones from leftover boards, and had some fun with dumb puns for the names. I also printed this zombie hand to decorate one of the undead graves!




▲ 結構リアルでしょう?

 

Looks pretty real, right? Not bad for an hour of messy painting!

 

 

 

▲ 玄関ドアにこのパンプキンもありました。パンプキンは3Dプリントで、後は手作りでした。

 

I also printed this little pumpkin face, and hung it in the middle of this stick wreath. I made the wreath with sticks I picked up while out walking Katie in the morning. Worked well with some black spray paint and some LEDs!





▲ パーティーの夜、暗くなったらこんな雰囲気ができました!あっちこっちにちょっと気持ち悪い飾りがあって、飛んでいるお化けも作りました。

 

Party time! It got dark about 6pm, and I had a few minutes free before people turned up, to take some atmospheric pics! I removed half of the bulbs outside, to make it darker and creepier.





▲ 新しいガレージの中にも可愛いMonsterCarも飾っていた!

 

I couldn't help showing off the new garage and the lights, so I turned the car into a cute little monster too!





▲ ほら ー お墓が気持ち悪いでしょう?

 

Here are those 5 gravestones, looking suitably creepy at night.





▲ 飛んでいるお化けが写真の左側にあります。そして、玄関の外側もクモの巣がいっぱい付けました!

 

If you look at the left side of this photo, you can see the small ghost I rigged up on fishing wire between two trees - thanks to a repurposed printer motor tied to a tree, it slowly floated across and above the deck outside, before disappearing from view. Funny!

 

The other decoration I added in the afternoon was many, many spider webs! The front door area looks good draped in giant webs, right?





▲ 玄関に入るとハロウィーンっぽい飾りありました。写真撮影にはいいかも?

 

ケイティちゃん(犬)もちょっとだけ光る首輪にしました。

 

This was the view once you step through the front door, with a flight of bats flapping around this little Halloween scene. It made a nice spot for some spooky costume photos, although Katie wouldn't cooperate for a pic. I gave her a glowing collar anyway, so people could at least see her properly!





▲ じゃ、ここからクモの巣が始まりますよ。。。

 

Stepping up from the genkan area, the spider webs start again....





▲ カラー電球2個だけにしましたので、変わった感じのパーティーになりました。

 

I removed all the lights except two colour bulbs, which were just about enough to see and eat by, and gave the whole room an awesome weird vibe!





▲ なかなかいいでしょう?

 

Check out that funky ceiling - plenty of webs, paper chains, and other bits and pieces!

 


パーティ―の前にビデオも撮りましたが、あまり上手に取れなかった。Sorry!

 

I also took a quick video too, but my phone had problems getting good footage in the dark conditions - apologies for that!

 

 

 


Tags: halloween 




Garage construction ガレージ工事 PART 6

2023-10-15 by David

外壁と屋根の時間です!やっと!

夏の天気から秋っぽくなりましたので、作業がちょっとだけ楽になりました!

It's finally time to add the exterior walls and finish the roof. Fiiiiiinally!!

 

The summer weather has started to cool now, which has helped to make the work on the garage a little easier. So let's get started....





▲ まずは外壁のサイディング張りから始めます。正面に空気入れの穴を八角の形にカットしました。そして、角を守る「通し出隅」を付けてから隙間を防水用のシリコンでコーキングしました。この作業は2日間ぐらいかかりましたが、これでほぼ防水な形になったんです。

 

It took about 2 days of cutting and hammering to cover all the walls with these heavy siding boards, and I finished the front off with a vent hole cut into an octagonal shape. Then it was just a case of quickly adding some metal strips to each of the four corners, and then sealing the join gaps between boards with waterproof silicon caulking. And with that, the building was mostly waterproof!





▲ そして、楽しみにしていた作業になった!ペイントの時間です!ツヤありの黒に3回塗りました。「1回塗り」のペイントを買いましたが、やはりなかなか綺麗にペイントできなかったので、3階も塗りました。そのペイントの選択がちょっと失敗。

 

Then it was the job I'd been looking forward to for ages - painting time! I decided to paint the exterior in glossy black, to contrast nicely with the still-to-be-added white doorframe woodwork. It said on the paint tin that it only needed one coat of black, but in fact it took 3 coats to neatly cover the walls properly. Grrrrrrr





▲ 次は入口前の坂作りでした。DIY店から買ったドライコンクリート袋15個を隣のTeruさんから借りたハンドミクサーで混ぜました。300kgも必要だったのでちょっと時間かかりましたが、友達の手伝いで綺麗に出来上がりました。

 

Once the walls were dry, it was time to add some concrete to the entranceway, so I could actually drive a car inside! My lovely neighbour loaned me an electric hand-mixer, which sped up the process of mixing 15 bags of concrete considerably (300kg in total), but it still took quite a while to smooth it off!





▲ 残っている大きい作業が一つだけですね ー 屋根だ!ブルーシートをやっと外しましたので、その代わりに防水用のルーフィングシートをホチキスで付けました。

 

The last big job was to finish the roof. I removed the big, blue tarpaulin which had kept it safe for a few weeks, and quickly stapled down a few strips of waterproof roofing felt.





▲ 屋根の周りに白く塗った1x6木材を付けました。

 

The eaves were carefully cut from 1x6s and screwed into place around the edges of the roof, and painted with two coats of white paint. On top of those were nailed some metal strips to further protect the roof subsurface.





▲ よし、始まるぞ。屋根の90cmスレートを144枚も張りました。この作業も大体二日間かかりましたので、雨降っていない日にしたんです。

 

Time to get this done! It took a couple of cloudy-but-dry days to nail down all 144 roof slates, and finish the top ridgeline of the roof with a metal cover. These were heavy artificial slates, but look really lovely and should last years! They probably weigh about 500kg in total, though, so I didn't park the car inside yet... just in case!





▲ その二日間の間、屋根の上に座った形で作業をしていましたので2つのジーンズは全然ダメになったんです!そのスレートの素材がサンドペーパーぐらいの凸凹が付いていますので、ご注意ください!haha

 

Look what happened to my jeans! Yikes!!

 

I spent most of those two days on the roof sitting and sliding across on my arse, and the surface of those slates is pretty much like sandpaper! So I destroyed the arse-cheeks of TWO old pairs of jeans. I guess professional roofers do everything standing up (?), but I found it much easier and safer doing everything sitting down.





▲ 最後に正面のアクセントですね。空気入れ穴の八角の周りにフレームを作りたかったですが、木材作りではなくプラスチックで3Dプリントしました!

 

このフレームのデザインを利用したい場合であれば、こちらに載せました:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6266117

 

One last thing I wanted to add to the front of the building was a decorative vent cover for that octagonal hole. I couldn't find anything suitable (i.e. cheap!) on the internet, and I decided not to try making it out of wood. Instead, I decided to try designing a frame and 3D printing it! Who'd have thought that would be possible?!

 

The 3D-printable design for the 40cm octagonal vent is available here for anybody that wants it:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6266117





▲ 何回も白く塗りましたので、木材作りと変わらない形になりました。

 

After some putty to cover the joins and several thick coats of white paint, it looks indistinguishable from a wooden frame - but has the extra benefits of being lightweight and waterproof!





▲ 今日はそのフレームを正面に張りました。いかがでしょうか?アクセントは大事ですよね?

 

I attached it to the vent hole on the front this afternoon, and then sealed the gaps around it with silicon caulking. Very happy with that!





▲ ドアはまだ作っていないんですが、この状態で使えるガレージになりました。

 

And so, the garage is at last a real garage. I haven't fitted any doors yet, but it's finally able to keep my little baby safe and protected from the elements.





▲ 黒と白のデザインはやはり正解でした!そして、インテリアの白と赤い木材も好き。

 

ドアも付けたくないぐらい可愛いガレージになりました。

 

I think that choosing black and white for the exterior worked pretty well against the bright red of the house. The simple white and red wood interior also looks pretty good, no?





▲ ドアは間もなく作る予定ですが、とりあえずこれで「完成」ですかね?嬉しい。

 

I'll add some doors at some point in the near future, but for now I'm calling this DIY garage build 'finished'. Yay!

 

OSBボード 16枚 : 31,680円

サイディング 25枚 : 46,800円

窓サッシ 3個 : 55,010円

通し出隅 4本 : 4,600円

コーキング・ペイントなど : 13,270円

壁 : 151,360円

 

このDIYガレージの予算は約65万円でしたが、どうなったでしょう?。。。

 

DIYガレージの価格:

基礎 : 87,349円

ブロック壁 : 27,443円

壁の木材フレーム : 105,035円

屋根(フレーム&スレート) : 169,983円

壁 : 151,360円

ガレージ合計 : 541,170円

 

何か55万円は嬉しいですね。「注文するキット+基礎+屋根」なら150万円ぐらいかかるので、やはり最初からDIYにしたら大変ですが結構節約できますね。あまるお金が電気や可愛いドアのために使うつもりです。

 

 

Alright, let's see how much these walls cost.....

 

16 sheets of OSB chipboard : 31,680yen

25 sheets of exterior siding : 46,800yen

3 windows : 55,010yen

4 corner strips : 4,600yen

Silicon caulking, paint etc. : 13,270yen

Walls : 151,360yen

 

Great, that's not too bad! Now let's crunch some numbers, and work out how much the garage cost in total, compared to the estimated budget of 650,000yen ($5000usd-ish)....

 

12ft x 16ft DIY garage:

Foundations : 87,349yen

Block wall : 27,443yen

Wall frames : 105,035yen

Roof (frame and slates) : 169,983yen

Walls : 151,360yen

Total cost for garage : 541,170yen

 

Yay, that came in considerably under budget, mostly thanks to being able to reuse some of the expensive lumber from the foundations later on in the build, and other small savings here and there. Certainly compared to the "DIY kits" I'd originally looked at online, it's a heck of a saving - those kits don't usually include foundations, exterior siding or roofing materials, so the total cost would probably come in somewhere around the 1,500,000yen mark ($13,000usd). So the extra money saved from my budget can go on some nice door fittings and lighting, perhaps?

 


Tags: garage  車庫 




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