How To Make Damascus Micarta Sunglasses!
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- Опубліковано 25 лют 2021
- Micarta /mai-kar-tə/ - noun:
A brand name for composites of linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber or other fabric in a thermosetting plastic.
Damascus /dəˈmæskəs/ - noun:
The forged steel of the blades of swords smithed in the Near East from ingots of Wootz steel.
These two iconic and unique materials are both examples of composites, whether it be textiles casted under pressure with a thermoset plastic, or a blend of forge-welded steels. We wanted to create something unique and maybe even a whole new process combining these two materials, then machine some cool sunglasses with it. Learn with us and make your own micarta at home for cool projects like knife scales, tool handles, and more!
Enter or giveaway where you can win a piece of this damascus micarta to make something cool with in your own shop!
gleam.io/ARmfQ/damascus-micar...
All files for this project are located in our github repo: github.com/narwhallabs/Damasc...
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Materials and Tools used in this project:
For the Micarta:
Melamine sheet for making a releasable mold box
3D printer and PLA filament
Mold release wax or spray: www.jamestowndistributors.com...
100% cotton fabric - cut to the size of your mold box. ~200 layers results in about 1 1/8" thick finished micarta
Heavy-duty "F" style clamps. We used a custom made steel screw clamp, but that isn't necessary.
TotalBoat Thickset: www.totalboat.com/product/tot...
Epoxy spreader: www.totalboat.com/product/epo...
Disposable paint tray liners: www.jamestowndistributors.com...
Poly sheeting (to protect your work surface)
Some friends - this layup will be difficult and time consuming to do solo.
For machining the sunglasses:
Stock material - must be at least 3/4" thick
Fusion 360 - CAD and CAM for making toolpaths
CNC Router - AvidCNC PRO2448 www.avidcnc.com/pro4824-4-x-2...
1/4" flat 2 flute spiral upcut end mill - Part registration and roughing passes
1/8" ball end 2 flute spiral upcut end mill - Finishing passes bitsbits.com/product/srf4-250...
1/4" hardened steel dowel pins - for part registration bitsbits.com/product/srb4-125up/
T-Tracks and cantilever clamps - other workholding solutions will likely work fine
Lenses
Eyeglass Hinges (we were unable to source these domestically)
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Narwhal Labs is a community and makerspace that encourages and supports creative building, learning, and experimentation. Located in Bristol, Rhode Island at TotalBoat and Jamestown Distributors HQ.
www.narwhallabs.com
wiki.narwhallabs.com
github.com/narwhallabs
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Supporters of NarwhalLabs:
TotalBoat - www.totalboat.com/
AvidCNC - www.avidcnc.com
ThunderLaser USA - www.thunderlaser.com/
MakerMade - www.makermade3d.com/
Arbortech - www.arbortechtools.com/
Bits&Bits - bitsbits.com/
Rockler - www.rockler.com/
Pony Jorgensen - ponyjorgensen.com/
SPAX - spax.us/ - Навчання та стиль
Stoked!! Had a ton of fun tackling these with the crew
Crushed on this one guys, nice work!
Really cool technique! These look great.
Thank you Dave!
This is a really cool technique. It adds some nice texture and would look good in lots of applications. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching! Definitely tag us if you try it yourself - we'd love to see our friends and fans make their own damascus micarta.
Such a cool project. Definitely some ups and downs with the CAM and CNC work that week - but Andrew killed it on the finishing and execution! Great work team!
We loved seeing this come together! Awesome job and sweet montage at the end 😉😉
groovy groovy 😎😎😎
Very cool.
Turned out great, awesome job! 😎👍🏻👊🏻 ..... SVE hat tip? 🤔
You got it! Sous Vide is the best! Thanks Fred!
Guga FTW!
😍😎
Wow. This is awesome. I came here from Tim Sway's comment about it on Reclaimed Audio podcast. I have a few questions. First, why the steel plates with the welded crossbars? I'm assuming it's so that it can hold up to the pressure from cranking down on the nuts? I was thinking if someone didn't have access to steel or a welder that they could get by with using just stacked pieces of plywood or MDF and a bunch of pipe clamps. Sure, this is easier though. Second, why was the melamine stuck so bad to the micarta buildup? I thought that you painted mold release on it, but was it only on the 3D printed positive/negative parts and not the melamine frame? Third, did you say 250 pieces of fabric?!? Holy hell! I know it looks awesome when you're done, but man that's a lot and you had to have a couple helpers. I was wondering if one was going to do this for some one-man operation for a part on a product that they were selling and had to be more efficient how they would do it and not lose their ass for man-hours. My thought is maybe use some thicker material like denim or something so that less layers would be needed. I promise that I'm not complaining or criticizing your technique; I'm just trying to bounce some more ideas around. I love you guys' stuff and this is a killer idea and thank you for sharing the video.
Thanks for checking out the video, glad you liked it.
1. As far as clamping goes, I do think that you could use MDF and pipe clamps. The press that we made gave us pretty even pressure and a lot of it, but it will certainly work with just clamps.
2. The melamine wasn't really stuck, it was the actually the 3D printed dies that got stuck. We think that they stuck despite using mold release because the texture resulting from 3D printing them left the perfect surface for a mechanical bond. I think if we wanted to reuse them we'd need to epoxy or gelcoat them so we have a smoother surface and then apply mold release.
3. We used thin fabric because we thought that it would result in the biggest visual impact. More layers means more detail. That said you could certainly try this with thicker fabrics such as denim, colored canvas, etc. We tested canvas and got some pretty cool results.
Who won the ripsurf?
We drew a winner and attempted to contacted them, they unfortunately have not replied.The other giveaway on Braille's channel was successful.
The board will remain on display in our MakerSpace until the winner replies. Perhaps we can try another giveaway if we do another Braille collab :)
Now see, how I’d have done it was make the initial block of micarta, then slice it into thin pieces, alternate the slices and re-epoxy them, then it would be like real Damascus, or well “pattern welded steel” since Damascus is a lost art. Jesus, rereading my comment I sound like a know it all asshole, sorry about that lol
I hate you! No really don't you have something better to do, then making me want one of those glasses now?
Great work guys, I still hate you 😁