Let's see... busy busy!
Last weekend I worked on some teeth Saturday (added the pics to this Flickr set: http://tinyurl.com/dbdx6q ) and ended up roughing out a half-dozen sets, including a new experimental one on my (new) duplicate that goes over the gums, to give me more control.
Sunday, then, I built up some sculpting turntables and armatures and generally fiddled around, and then did some actual sculpting (with Beth, whose work isn't online yet)... pics of the little guy I call Elmo, who has an hour of work or so in him, here: http://tinyurl.com/njsbpc He looks kind of ragged because he is... an hour doesn't give much time to clean up!
Then, later in the week, I worked up a fairly comprehensive project list for Scare 2009 (which will kick ASS) -- it clocks in at 148 entries right now... not ALL of which are for me to do, but still, the core group is about a dozen of us, we are gonna be BUSY.
Working off of THAT list, I worked up a shopping list and then went shopping!
I bought a metric buttload of materials from Smooth-On, then scattered my cash across another half dozen or so local stores.
Used the shiny new tubing bender (three-roller variety from Harbor Freight, model #99736) to do trial bends on some 1/2" square pipe, 1" EMT (which is actually an inch and an eight OD), and 3/4" EMT. Got some excellent results, some iffy results, one bad result. Overall, an excellent tool, and for $160 it's a HECK of a lot cheaper than the next cheapest which clocks in at $1,200 (or did I see one for $800? The overpriced stuff all runs together after a while).
An interesting result of crushing the 1.25" OD pipe into the 1" dies is that it forces it into an oval shape that is strong in the direction of curvature. I don't know if I care or not, but there it is. It also requires slow adjustments or the tube will squirrel out of plane, which is bad. To get a full quarter circle uses a lot of effort! And I have sixteen of these to make! Well, 15 now.
I'm also testing a variety of (cheap-ish) wheels and casters to use as supports for the pipes, which are destined to become a middle-sized vortex tunnel.
Worked up a design for a vacuum table with companion radiant oven, so I can do a lot of efficient molding work on THAT; bought the supplies to build it of course. Got the heater wire online last week, not to bad for price, hope it behaves! Also, have a query in to Regal on cheap thermoform plastic.
Worked up a design for massive chunk-tolerant blood pumps, using 4" PVC schedule 40 pipe, some miscellaneous other PVC fittings, weather stripping for O-Ring sealing, and racket balls for check valves. So far, the O-Ring test has been VERY promising, I'm quite encouraged. May get some leakage at the edges of the ring, but overall I expect the backing material to keep most stress off the seal, and with a 4" ID pipe I'm moving a LOT of blood. I'm going to use some 6" stroke pneumatic cylinders I have laying around to drive dual 4" PVC blood pumps with alternate cycles to get nearly continuous flow.
Did some research and found a company selling water-soluble skull caps... and then did some MORE research because their prices hurt my sensibilities and decided that they were using PVA to make these; and also using PVA to make prosthetic appliances for cuts and stuff. Which is AWESOME, because I'm about to order a HUGE amount of both PVA and Methylcellulose for my fancy-shmancy slime needs. Very neat; if this works, I'll be a happy camper. Oh, had to run out to Sally Beauty to get a few foam heads, to try to make skull caps on. May have to build those up some so they are big enough.
Almost forgot; bought and reviewed relevant chapters in "Clinical Aspects of Dental Materials: Theory, Practice, and Cases"... good book! Though not as good as the one we found at Half Price books, whose name escapes me.
Okay, have to do more shopping. Then, coming up; tooth work, sculpting, and more experiments. Next weekend, life-casting! With any luck.