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User:Stever/Projects/rondeldagger: Difference between revisions
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Once cool I used a dremmel tool to reduce the end of the tang to a stub less than 5mm diameter and 100mm long so that it could be fitted into a small peen block to retain it. Over to the metal lathe, I used some scrap stainless steel we had to make a small button-like peen block about 5mm tall and 20mm wide with a beveled edge. Once that was made and cleaned it was time to use the [[Tools/TIG|TIG welder]] to secure it onto the end of the tang. This isn't a common method as it's more usual these days to use an oxy-acetylene torch to heat the end of the tang and hammer it into a taper in the peen block, but the lab doesn't have an acetylene torch for safety reasons and this worked quite well. The end of the pommel was then polished like the rest of the dagger.
That completed the manufacturing of the dagger so it was time to move on to making a mounting board for it so it could be displayed. I started with some timber from an old hardwood desk that I salvaged. It was cut up into usable planks with the table saw and band-saw so that I could work with it reasonably easily. I then used the [[Tools/routertable|router table]] to put finger joints into the edges of 5 of the planks so that they could be glued edge-to-edge and still be reasonably strong. This left a nice flat hardwood board which has a lovely warm colour to it and large enough to mount up the dagger.
I designed the shape of the mounting board in OpenSCAD with convex rounded top and bottom and gently concave sides, then [[Tools/laser|laser cut]] that shape out of some scrap polypropylene that was laying around in order to use as a template to help shape the board. I screwed the template onto the back of the board and then it was back to the router table to use an edge-follower bit to cut the timber to shape, this actually took 2 tries as the first time I did it one of the joints exploded apart and flung a bit of timber across the room, fortunately the board I made was large enough for a second try. Once the shape was properly cut out I changed the bit to an Ogee cutter and put an elegant curve into the edge of the board so that it would resemble the kind of mounts that are normally used for trophies or ancestral weapons. The board was then coated with 3 coats of a water-based polyurethane varnish with sanding in between coats, this didn't give as high a shine as I was hoping for but with a little wax polish it still looks pretty good. Next time I'll probably try using either Tung oil or french polish to get a higher shine.
The next job was to make some clips to hold the dagger onto the mounting board so I opened up SCAD again and designed some spring clips that screw to the mounting board hold the dagger securely. They were [[Tools/ultimaker|3D printed]] in carbon-fibre reinforce filament and screwed to the board, the first clips I made broke as they were too stiff and rigid to fit the blade into without snapping so I re-designed the to be a little thinner and re-printed. The final touch was a small plaque made on the laser cutter that describes the dagger and announces it was made by me, at rLab, in 2020. I had hoped to make an engraved brass plaque instead using the boxford, but the boxford seems to be having some issues with doing engraving at the moment so I went with laser-cut instead. The dagger and it's mounting board has now been installed in the lab above the main stairs, where it will stay for a few months before I take it hope.
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