Wednesday 29th April 2025

Urns!

We had produced urns and now thought a few in the workshop would look good, but they were a little too large. Geoff, resized the drawing files and printed a few off. After draining excess resin, they were rinsed, then placed in the UV machine and finally painted.

Draining excess resin

After rinsing

UV light 'fixing'

Painting

We then discussed what else might be made in stone and we both remembered the pineapples that used to be placed on top of the piers at entrance gates. Geoff had a hunt around, found a file and printed one off. 

Wednesday 22nd April 2025

Firstly, the benches were pried off the build plate, then the armatures were cut off and the remaining debris filed away. After mixing paint to emulate bench timbers, the benches were painted and dowsed with whiteish resin dust. They were perfect.

The benches were then tried out in the floorspaces and after long deliberation, 3 on each floor were agreed and glued down onto the floors, making sure the floor unit could still go in and out with minimal hassle.

A difference of opinion then raised its head. Geoff decided the internal partition would have an exit that went to a corridor. Stephen had always considered it to be a staircase and landing connecting the two buildings, with the workshop extending down the building. Geoff decided the matter by sticking a photo of a pair of doors on the main wall.

We will have to tidy the wiring up to reduce the chance of damaging it.

Wednesday 15th April 2026

No meeting last week, but an interesting session this week making 3D work benches.

A trip to Google came up with several workrooms with similar benches. The photos also showed what else was stored in the workrooms, which we will assess in due course.

A bench design sketch was developed and dimensions agreed. Geoff then drew the bench in his 3D package, which was duplicated and the units laid out to fit on the printer baseplate.

The print program then automatically added supports (armatures) to maintain the shape of the model until the resin sets solid.

Finally, the drawing is sent to the 3D printer. Once the liquid resin has fully drained off, the model will be thoroughly washed and dried before the benches are taken off the board and the supports removed. 

Stephen thought the windows needed to be cleaned to allow views of the new interior and set-about it using a cotton bud. A couple of figures were temporarily placed inside to gauge the visibility through the windows.

Thoughts were also given to the small roller shutter into the same building and how the finished products could laid out on pallets outside. 

Wednesday 1st April 2026

There was no meeting last week as Geoff had a last minute meeting to attend, but we picked up where we left off the previous week.

A polyboard panel was cut for the roof space together with holding in tabs to allow for later removal. The LED strings (1 x 4 and 1 x 5 lamps) were fitted to the polyboard ceilings using hot-gun glue. An extension wire was added to the upper floor and both feed wires fed through a hole in the baseboard, to a plug/socket. 

Due to the different number of LED's on each floor, it was sensible to wire them in series. The small power supply unit was adjusted and 8v gave a reasonable light level. The windows are pretty-heavily soiled and might have to be addressed if the interior detailing warrants it. 

We had another look at stone workshop photos online and decided that some 3D printed work benches would be nice, which Geoff will investigate.