Project tangent danger.

So, I recently started the project of getting this website up and running. It was going well, and I decided I need a little more to show, as well as getting my updated CV it's own page.

Then I went on a massive tangent towards the goal of making my board game, HUB.

One thing to know about manufacture is that the stage before you even make anything physical is terribly expensive for someone who isn't willing to take out a loan. On my gallery is a set of images depicting progress on the moulds for my token designs, since posting that gallery up, which now needs an update, I ordered some injection mould plates made in heat resistant resin, all's good there. But now the issue is, that I need something to throw plastic inside it with - enter the tangent.

I was looking up desktop injection moulding, and found that for some bizarre reason, the cheapest option out there was a bench-top press with a clamp and heating element, for a little over £4000. This is about 4x the price of an equally powerful press for pies with an air pressure system, and it's own heating elements, which could do exactly the same job if you attach the right tools to the face plate.

But, 4x cheaper still isn't cheap enough for home brew manufacture, clocking in at £980~£1450 and an industrial catering standard press sitting at about two feet tall isn't very desktop friendly either. And so I set out angrily - putting a big middle finger to the current market - to fix this dilemma. Now, the tangential project begins!

I have spent the time since starting this website, neglecting it in favour of reverse-engineering the pie press design, from several image references on the internet, many close observations of the one used in the kitchen where I work, and a few tweaks and repurposed sections born of my own mind.

Now, I have a press tube, a face plate to screw onto the inside of the tube, a cap for adding a pivot on top of the tube, a body shaft for the tube to live in, a lever arm to pull the press down, and some modular attachments for different injection scenarios.

One is a large disc intended for pushing thermoplastics whilst avoiding the need to crush a heating element, the other is a pair of rods to act like syringe plungers for two-part resins.

Now the time has come to take a small break from that, and get back on track with making my website have all the pretty things it needs in order to be useful. My CV being a main one, new images updating my galleries next, and then to figure out how I am to embed my music here and show off my live streaming channel.

Tune in next time to find out how I went completely off the rails and start something else new, using a skill I've never before attempted, and until then, enjoy the screenshots, photos and renders.