Using Blender to bring some of my crazy ideas to life….

[Matthew Fricker]

Thanks @beefkeef , hopefully pouring the resin tomorrow if all goes well! 

[Ingmar Franz]

For that price it’s for sure high quality with an excellent support and a machine that allows you to cut bigger and thicker parts. I’m looking forward to the creations that you’ll bring to live with it 😀!

[Matthew Fricker]

Tonight I poured the first layer of resin. After messing around trying to suspend the fish in mid-air with string and fishing line , I settled on a much simpler , more efficient solution. Sometimes the simple ways are the best! 

Anyway , after mixing 750ml of blue tinted resin , I poured it and it looked great. I’ve just checked on it and it is setting nicely although there are a lot of annoying bubbles in some places around the edge of the mold and on the fish that weren’t there when I left it.  Although this is frustrating , i am not hugely bothered as this first one is merely a prototype lamp that I won’t be selling. All the trials and errors , and learning from this one will be used to create a batch of sellable ones over the summer. 

So assuming the resin cures as planned , I will remove the clamps on Sunday and pour the second layer to seal in the fish. All going well, de-molding will take place on Wednesday and next weekend I can start assembly of the full lamp 🙂 

[spikeyxxx]

This is so exciting!

[Claudiu Bulugea]

This is cool stuff! It instantly reminded me of the stuff Minibricks (on YouTube) made. Be sure to check them out if you’re not familiar, absolutely incredible creations! Hope yours turns out great. Looking forward to seeing the final result!

[Matthew Fricker]

Sorry for the silence on the project everyone – I’ve had a lot of interest in the fish lamp , so much so that I am keeping things under wrap at the moment until I can perfect the design and start rolling some sellable ones out. 

The latest update is that the prototype lamp is assembled and works. There were a lot of resin related issues but I have it all figured out now.

 I am currently starting to build a 7m x 4m workshop in my garden that will be used to make these and other ideas, so for the next few months I will be focussing on that and once finished it will be full steam ahead with production of the fish lamps! 

I promise I will post photographs as soon as things start moving again.  

[Shawn Blanch]

Don’t hold out on us now. I am still excited to see these fish lamps @frikkr 

[Matthew Fricker]

Fish lamps are still on hold unfortunately @blanchsb  – but only due to the addition of an awesome new workshop in our front garden….. My wife and I started this build back in September last year with no experience in construction other than DIY. The whole thing was designed in Blender and it is finally coming together. The workshop is fully soundproofed (as it is close to our kids and the neighbours kids bedrooms) and will feature a CNC router , welder , mini lathe , sand blasting cabinet , airbrushing station , a sublimation setup , 3d printer,  resin pouring and casting station , and all manner of hand tools for woodworking and metalwork.  Its going to be damn cool when its done , and I am so proud of what we have achieved , and as soon as it is finished , the fish lamp production will resume 🙂 

Here are some WIP shots of the workshop build so far : 

[Wendy Robinson]

That’s a great idea! It looks so cool!

[Matthew Fricker]

Thanks @wendy10698 , hopefully it will actually get finished at some point….. 

[Shawn Blanch]

That looks amazing. It may be improper to ask but how much are you thinking that costs you? I would love a workspace like that!

[Matthew Fricker]

Thanks @blanchsb – It is hard to say how much this cost us exactly , as we did all of the work ourselves so we only paid for materials , but  I would estimate that it cost us about £10-15K roughly. That includes windows , doors , the concrete base and all the wood you see to build it. Its also fully insulated and soundproofed with mass loaded vinyl too which was fairly pricey. A contractor friend of ours estimated that to pay someone to build it for us , it would have cost about £30-40K for labour and materials. As for the tools and CNC , we are still buying them as we go but I think we will have easily spent another £10K+ on those too…. I keep telling myself it will be worth it when its done….. 

[Shawn Blanch]

Yeah I was interested how y’all did in saving by doing the work yourself. The concrete would be the only part that would scare me personally, just making sure I got the ground set up.

Everything is looking awesome. I’ve definitely got some workshop envy and can’t wait to see the progress updates as they come.
You got plans on the first project? Or is it finishing the current one?

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