Doing My Part For The Economy.

While the rest of the country tightens up their belt buckles, and pours their money into low interest earning savings accounts, I'm off doing my part to help revive this stagnant economy by spending my hard earnedz on frivolous silliness.

Witness my latest purchase, two gallons of epoxy resin! I picked up the West Systems brand epoxy resin 105 system, with a couple quarts of the 205 slow cure kick. This is a VERY high quality fiber glass system that I have had excellent results with in the past on other projects.

I have purchased this stuff to make the jacket for my cape mold. For those of you who haven't been following along, the scheme goes something like this:

First I build a big, huge table. Then I lay the cape flat on the table. Then I pour silicone rubber on top of the cape. Then I lay up a fiberglass shell on TOP of the rubber to help it keep it's shape when I flip it over and start pouring up a positive.

I'm hoping that two gallons will be more than enough to complete this project. The good news is that the West Systems stuff has a really long shelf life, so any stuff that I don't use will be able to sit around for awhile until a new need arises.

Here's the link for the place I got my resin from:
www.discountmarinesupplies.com

I figure if this stuff is good to make a boat hull out of, it's good enough for a cape mold shell. (or "matrix", as they call them in da biz.)

Cape Table Build Begins

I'm just now blogging on some progress I've made on the cape table. It's coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself!

It all starts with a simple plan. I took the cape measurements, added about ten inches to each side, and then drew up some very simple plans using the measurements of the MDF I purchased.



Speaking of MDF, here's the big cart 'o lumber I brought home the other night. Three huge and heavy sheets of MDF, and a bunch of 2X4's.



I started in with my chop saw, cutting the 2X4's to lenght. I cut five ribs for the main body, and two pieces for the ends.



On a side note, I had to get my bike out of the way, as I need every square inch of garage floor space. I FINALLY got around to doing another little project, which is to screw in those hooks into the ceiling. Now the bike is off the ground. WHoohoo!



After getting all the wood cut, it was just a matter of building the box under the MDF. I started with one big sheet, as all of the other pieces will need to be cut to fit my design. I really don't have any idea if it will work or not, but it's a pretty fun learning experience.



So far so good, but I'm a little tired out now, since all that wood is heavy! More in a bit, as it happens.

Webbing and Pantone

When I got back from my trip to London, a few goodies had arrived.

First up is the 1" yellow webbing I ordered from Seattle Fabrics. Either I'm a total idiot, their website is hard to figure out, or a combination of both. I THOUGHT I was ordering by the foot, but it looks like it was by the yard. So now I've got TONS of the stuff. I could make a million belts with this amount, and believe me, I have no intention of that.



Second is the pantone color book. This is sort of your entry level color book, and I guess you get what you pay for. I'm sad to say that NONE of the swatches in this book match ANY of the colors on the cape. So I'm still on my own as far as color matching goes. I'm not really sure how to proceed on that front, so if anyone has any suggestions, please pass them along.

Workshop Clean Up

I just got back from three amazing weeks in England, and I'm sort of scrambling to get some work done before I ship out to Ohio for another week.

I spent a big chunk of today cleaning out my garage, er, I mean my workshop! I have to make room for the GIANT table I'm going to build on which I will mold the Superman cape. I had kicked around the idea of not building a table, but instead just buying some smooth wall panelling to lay on the floor, but there were a few complications with that. I have decided to go back to my original plan of building a table for it.

It's going to cost me a few bucks in supplies, but I figure I can convert it into a work bench once the cape is finished, so it's not money wasted. Besides, I could use a good work bench! No photos today, as there's nothing really to show.

I hope to have my building supplies purchased tonight, and a good part of the table assembled by tomorrow.

New Boot Soles

Today I received some great new photos of the soles of the Superman Returns boots that are being made for me in Argentina. I think they turned out great! Take a look for yourself.