Kevin Jenness
12-17-2021, 8:55 AM
I was asked by an artist with whom I have worked before to make a base for a sculpture. The underside of the resin casting has four threaded inserts in a random pattern to allow for hidden fastening, and the task was to locate holes correctly in the base.
I first considered using plexiglass but lacked a large enough piece of scrap and was dissuaded when I checked the price of a 2' square sheet. I roughed out a piece of 1/4" melamine coated particleboard and marked two holes on it using trammel points on a beam. From the initial points I picked up distances to the other two holes in the casting and marked where the arcs intersected on the template. I ran fasteners through the template into the casting inserts, marked the casting outline and cut it out with a bandsaw.
The template and casting were reunited and place on the base and precisely located by the artist to get good margins at several points. The template outline was marked on blue tape on the base, then the loose template was replaced on its marks and the hole locations marked with a vix bit.
The inserts were not plumb in the casting, so I indicated the drift direction and angle for each one and drilled through the base with a handheld drill lined up with a protractor. The holes were counterbored in the base and the fastening completed.
I'd be interested to know how others go about this sort of thing.
470009470010470011470012470013
I first considered using plexiglass but lacked a large enough piece of scrap and was dissuaded when I checked the price of a 2' square sheet. I roughed out a piece of 1/4" melamine coated particleboard and marked two holes on it using trammel points on a beam. From the initial points I picked up distances to the other two holes in the casting and marked where the arcs intersected on the template. I ran fasteners through the template into the casting inserts, marked the casting outline and cut it out with a bandsaw.
The template and casting were reunited and place on the base and precisely located by the artist to get good margins at several points. The template outline was marked on blue tape on the base, then the loose template was replaced on its marks and the hole locations marked with a vix bit.
The inserts were not plumb in the casting, so I indicated the drift direction and angle for each one and drilled through the base with a handheld drill lined up with a protractor. The holes were counterbored in the base and the fastening completed.
I'd be interested to know how others go about this sort of thing.
470009470010470011470012470013