Vacuum forming.

Today I got trained by Eric on how to use the Rep's vacuum form machine!
He showed me how to do it and helped through the steps for the first 2 sheets.  Then I did 8 more over the course of the day, getting quite comfortable with the process.

 You can use many kinds of thermo plastics in vacuum forming.  For this project we used clear 3mm PETG.  http://www.lairdplastics.com/product/materials/petg
There are thicker and colored plastics.  Eric chose 3mm to get the finer detail. 

 These components are being combined and painted to make wall sconces for End Of The Rainbow.

Clamping down the sheet of plastic to the frame which will be raised in the air and heated by the oven in the top of the unit.

The vacuum forming unit.  On top is the oven. Below is the vacuum tank connected up to the perforated table.  These are the 4 elements being formed.  Sheet of plastic is raised in the air being heated.  Takes about 2 minuets from start of heating to lowering it down and vacuuming the shapes.

4 shapes to be made.  Important to note, you can't have any undercuts on shapes or it will get sealed in.

hot plastic lowered and objects sealed in.

The plastic sets very fast 4-6 seconds.  here is the sheet removed to a table with the shapes still in. Shapes are trimmed out with tin snips

rough cut out of shapes

close up.  The forms were made up of MDF that had been cut with a cut away machine and polyurethaned heavily to withstand being used multiple times and keep the intricate detail.

The shapes then had a blank that connected underneath.  These blanks were exactly the same as the topping shape.  This was important since i needed to router around all the forms to evenly trim the plastic.  At the router table a special router bit was used that was inset by an 8th of and inch.  This left a better looking, and less brittle, edge to the pieces.  When routering I had to be careful.  The plastic wanted to crack up edges. The cracking effect is one reason we made 10 sets for the needed 8 sconces.

Trimmed and removed pieces. Ready to be taken to paint.

This particular plastic is food safe and completely recyclable.

Other Forever Plaid

Here are some more projects that I worked on for Forever Plaid.

Fake cigarette.

  This cigarette needed to be pulled out and handled a little bit, but is never lit.  The actor pulls one out and walks off stage.  I looked in stock and there weren't any that were the right size and would hold up to an 8 week run.  So I made one.

There was a Marlboro lights pack with a broken cigarette.  I used the broken one as reference for paint and lettering.
some supplies used include, dowel, acrylic paint, paintbrushes, utility knife, foam, pack of cigarettes, hot glue

I stuffed the cigarette pack with 2 pieces of foam and then relined with the silver wrapper. I used 2 foam pieces so there would be a slot for the fake cigarette to be pulled from and reinserted easily.  Above you can see the cut dowel pre-paint next to the broken reference cigarette

Real cigarette on left.  Painted one on right.  I cut a piece of dowel to the correct length.  Using white and some burnt umber to paint it.  I penciled on the lines and Marlboro name and then fine brush painted them on with a paint mixed of gold and bronze.

The tobacco end I painted also with burnt umber and dark brown with a little white mixed in.  I had loose tobacco from the broken cigarette as reference.

Fake cigarette inserted in the pack

Newspaper clippings These are handled by the actors.  Katie printed of the few articles needed onto newspaper print.  We cut them out and scrap-booked them onto paper using rubber cement and adding tape accents.

Lyrics from the sky. These lyrics come from a ceiling drop during the show.  We needed to make planty of them, and also make them period.  Katie wrote up the appropriate lyrics onto different kinds of paper and scanned then in and double sided printed them.  I cut them out, adding paper punch holes and rounding edges as needed to complete the look.

 

Fabric cover of foam core boards for record wall decoration

Taffeta does not like to be taped or glued.  These 4 foam boards needed to get covered in the plaids that had been picked out and then put into the frames.  Initially tried taping them down, just pulled up with time.  So I used upholstery T pins poked in very shallow to hold the fabric in place.  I took the time to line up the plaid patterns pleasingly, centering a chosen color stripe vertically

 

Razor Blade mouth trick

Razor Blade in the Mouth Trick

!!!! Disclaimer !!!  Spoiler !!!!  

 Stop  reading if you do not want to know how this trick works.

This Magic trick is performed in Forever Plaid.  In this trick the actor takes a razor blade out of a handled shaving razor and sticks it in his mouth acting like he swallowed it.  He follows this with 2 more spare blades.  Then he takes some floss and cuts a pieces off and pretends to swallow it.  Then, after swallowing actions etc, he proceeds to pull out of his "empty"  mouth the 3 razor blades all tied together on the floss. 

This projects was all done by me start to finish.  How to do it was learned by all from a magic DVD.  Initially it was thought maybe will only need 8-12 sets.  Nope. Eventually ended up making close to 40 sets. (6 blades a set).  This prop has to be done very carefully.  They are put in an actors mouth, and these are real razor blades.  We don't truly want him getting cuts in his mouth.

It starts off with disposable razors blades.  These tend to come 10 to a pack and are slightly oiled to prevent them from rusting.  Needed to wipe each one off.

 

Contact paper is what is used to cover the blades and make them safe.  A 2"x2" square was cut out for each.  The buttons seen below come into play shortly.

 

Once the individual blade is wrapped in the contact paper, the excess needs to be trimmed off.  This has to be done carefully and well.  You don't want to cut to the metal and expose a razor edge, and if the angle of the curve cut on the contact paper is too steep, that edge becomes sharp.  I needed to make these absolutely safe for the actor. 

 

 For each set, one of the blades needs the center section of contact paper trimmed out so it will fit in the shaving handle. (Rt side below) Part of the actors action is to remove this blade in front of the audience.  It helps define what these are.  

He then proceeds to "swallow" it.  Followed by 2 more.  These get tongued to the inside of his cheek.  Next, he takes a length of floss and pretends to swallow that, tonguing it to the side with the newly inserted blades.

 

In the mean time, he has had a package in his mouth.  This has 3 of the razor blades strung along a string.  It has a button at one end to make it easy to grab and pull out the rigged blades.  These are always strung at a similar distance and on a length of string

 Below is a complete set, along with the HyMark thread used to string it, and 2 blades in the contact paper stage.  

Initially each set was wrapped as a whole in a zip-lock baggie.  After about a week or two of the show running, the actor and run crew asked that the components be separately combined.  The strung razors were each wrapped up into a sandwich bag and taped shut, and then put into a 1 gallon zip-lock bag. This keeps them orderly and not tangled with each other. 2 other zip-lock bags were then used. One for the center cut out prepped razors, and one for the singles. 

 

Projects, projects, and more projects.

Oh coffee stein, how I love thee.   

Forever Plaid has started tech.  Lots of little projects are being done. We are also moving onto Noises off.

Lets start with Forever Plaid.

Perry Como Cardigan
This cardigan gets presented on a pillow.  A PC logo was mocked up but the director and designer wanted smaller.  So Margaret drew up one about 1/2 the size.   This sweater I also hand stitched together inside so it wouldn't unfold.

Down sizing.  Large black trim for letters on right getting reduced to black cord on left  and then gold trimed.

Tying off the silk cord.  Did a burn test. Smelt like burnt hair. Didn't really self extinguish, no hard ash.  Pretty sure its silk. I used Hymark thread wrapped tightly at the lengths I'd measured out.  Cut with scissor and sealed with fray check

Perry Como cardigan with research. Smaller letters pinned in place.

Finished Sweater.

Weighted microphone 
This microphone was being lowered from the ceiling by a counter balance system, so it needed to be as heavy as possible.  It was not a working mic.  It was initially loaded up with lead shot, but they were popping out through the windscreen.  Needed to come up with something to keep the lead shot in.  (Once the show got to tech, this prop was cut.)

Disassembled microphone.  Patterns for the indides tarced on to paper and fitted.  Lead shot is in cup.

Initially discussed using aluminum metal wind screeen and painting it. But went with a quicker and efficient plan of using black felt.

Black felt fitted and tacked down with hot glue.  These 2 steel halved fit together very snugly.

Done microphone.  Lead shot loaded with a funnel through hole on top.  Packed in with a screwdriver, like ramrodding a musket. Then taped shut with silver tape.

 Razor blade magic trick
 Here's a sneak peak. I've been asked to not reveal this till after the show Forever Plaid  opens.

 Retractable Floss
This floss is going to be handed to an audience member as a gag gift that then needs to retract to the actors pocket.  So I cut out some plaid form the stash of plaids used to decorate this show. Applied it with Super 77 adhesive and touched up later with Fray Check. I then pulled the floss out from inside. We won't be needing it.  Drilled a hole in the bottom of the case for the thread to go through. 

Purple object on the right is the retractable name tag mechanism that fits right into the floss case.  I untied the small purple knob, being careful to not let the thread zip back into the purple case.  Threaded it through the floss case and retied it.

Completed plaidified floss case with retract mechanism installed.  Top section of floss insert tacked back in with hot glue to mask purple mechanism inside. I did use fray check on this after picture was taken to clean up the fraying edges.

(to be continued....Blog post under construction)

Flicker Candles Cont.

So last time I ended with the soldering and brush on electric tape. Continuing on...

Decided to recess the dead man switch to protect the connection and ease of use.  I drilled into the dowel along the wire groove deep enough to set in the switch and protect the end connection. 

Wax dripping applied with new hot glue.

A look down the inside.  I built up a ring of hot glue to give the effect of melted wax, and also to stabilize/center the flicker wick.

Patterned out a screen cover for the flicker wick chip circuit board. Plastic window screen. I did a burn/heat test with a heat gun. It did not start on fire, melted just a bit at very close range (1"-2" away)on high heat.  Should do just fine over the circuits. Will get gaffe taped on and then Velcro tape used to secure it to the bobech.  I did a heat test by putting a screen over the chip and holding the switch on for 4 mins.  The circuit did not get hot in that time

9 v batteries white taped and 3M dual lock used.  5 of these and 3 spares rigged up if batteries need changing by the end of the run of the show.  I chose the dual lock for the batteries because it is heavy duty and could handle a lot of weight.

When the candles are on, we didn't want to see a hard line of where the dowel was inside.  We wanted the effect to be the glowing top of a candle. So to diffuse the light, I wrapped some tissue paper around the wick above the dowel.

Left candle had the tissue paper diffusing, Right candle has no tissue.  You can see the distinct line of the dowel through the glow on the right one..

Taping up the bottom rig.

Finished Candles. 4 and a spare.

Finished candle close up.  I was not satisfied with the black screen mesh.

So, I took them off the circuits and spray painted them flat white

5 done flicker candle rigs

Close up.