Sign Shop Door

We kept hitting each other with the door and decided it needed a window so of course I over complicated it!

I started by creating 3D file of what I wanted the CNC to carve. One for each side of the door, cut from high density urethane (HDU). It took the Shopbot 17 hours to cut these two. HDU has about the same density as wood, it carves beautifully and holds up better outdoors than wood. It doesn’t shrink, crack or rot like wood. When it came off the Shopbot I spent a few hours sanding and carving details, then I primed both pieces. I painted both with a reactive metal paint, it has real brass powder suspended in it and while the paint was wet I sprayed a mild acid over it. The acid is only about as strong as vinegar and has metal oxide suspended in it. I used a green copper oxide. You see the reaction within an hour but it takes 24 hours to fully cure. If left unsealed it would continue to oxidize and change with time. This is called a living patina.

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Workshop Door Handle

I built a little workshop and needed a door handle so of course I over complicated it!

I’m a fan of Steampunk art and as a kid, I had plans of growing up to be a mad scientist, so this seemed like an obvious choice for the entrance to my ‘laboratory.’ I had some old pipe fittings laying around and the handwheel from an old table saw so I got out the Apoxie Sculpt and started sculpting. In this first photo you can see the end of the pipe sticking out of the tentacle, that screws into the pipe flange through the door onto the handwheel.  While the Apoxie Sculpt was still soft I brushed bronze powder over the surface, it’s real bronze ground as fine as baby powder and looked like metal when the Apoxie hardened. When I was done I spritzed it with a copper oxide acid solution to speed up the patina.

The handwheel alone seemed a bit bare, so I used the Apoxie Sculpt here also, thicking the neck and adding length to the base where it joined the pipe flange. Instead of the bronze powder, I used a reactive bronze paint and spritzed it with the copper oxide while it was still wet to make it all look as if it were cast in bronze.