By Simon Pinter
We have all sorts of fun toys to play with at the AMS, on a daily basis. My personal favorite is our ICG 380 drum scanner. Without a doubt it makes the best film scans in the world. Using an oil mounting process, film comes out of the machine wet and we needed to find a way to dry film sheets in an enclosed, dust free environment. A few weeks ago, the big cheeses issued a challenge to me: we want a film drying cabinet big enough to hold two 8X10 sheets of film. The cheapest we could find was $700. Not one to pass up an offer to play with fire (our laser cutter), I henceforth set out to do just that.
The design phase consisted of determining a few fixed dimensions. I knew it needed to be tall enough to hold two 8X10 sheets at an angle to drip dry and deep enough to make such a tall cabinet as stable as possible. I also knew our laser could not cut material bigger than 18"X32" so there was the size limitation.
The cabinet needed to allow a constant airflow, but not allow dust particles to enter. Both the top and bottom of the unit have a baffle system that allows air in but not large particles of dust. For the finer particulates, a carbon filter slides easily into place over the intakes. You will notice that the design for the top intakes is different than the design of the bottom intakes. This was simply an example of me showing off.
Using the AMS Laser Service Template in Adobe Illustrator, I layed out my files on four 18X32" sheets.
sheet one: fixed walls
sheet two: baffled feet
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sheet three: door and handles
sheet four:top and bottom
You will notice the common theme of inch long tabs on nearly every piece. I call them dove tails, which I am sure is making some veteran woodworkers cringe, and I use them to join edges when working with acrylic. This method makes gluing (which was done with super glue) a lot easier because it automatically squares all edges and allows the parts to stand on their own before the glue is dry. Also, the more surface area the glue touches, the stronger the cabinet will be. To create these forms, I start with a large rectangle, and then add or subtract my dove tails using the illustrator pathfinder.
The door is of a sliding variety, with handles designed to look like brass knuckles—just in case things get dicey in the Studio. The door is as tall and wide as the cabinet itself, and can be completely removed to allow film to be hung without contact while inside the box. It slides in a deep channel that helps keep out dust and makes it extra hard to open and close.
Inside, there are overhead rails from which the film will hang. Alligator clips will accommodate the easy insertion and removal of films.
The baffle system is a method of keeping dust out but allowing for constant air flow. This illustration shows how the top and bottom baffles work. The blue is air flow and the red is dust. The heavier dust gets trapped as the air is forced up.
This is a view of the bottom baffles intake and exhaust.
This is a view of the top baffle exhaust as well as the film hanging racks.
This is a view of the top baffle intake as well as a close up of the dovetailing.
And Finally, in all of its glory:
Just in case anyone was curious, the acrylic (I needed four full 18"x32" sheets) was $120. The vector length for the whole project was 1700” (roughly 3 hours of cutting time) and for those doing the math, .25” acrylic cut at this length would cost $207 on our laser. Total design time: 5 hours. Total build time: 15 hours.
We have all sorts of fun toys to play with at the AMS, on a daily basis. My personal favorite is our ICG 380 drum scanner. Without a doubt it makes the best film scans in the world. Using an oil mounting process, film comes out of the machine wet and we needed to find a way to dry film sheets in an enclosed, dust free environment. A few weeks ago, the big cheeses issued a challenge to me: we want a film drying cabinet big enough to hold two 8X10 sheets of film. The cheapest we could find was $700. Not one to pass up an offer to play with fire (our laser cutter), I henceforth set out to do just that.
The design phase consisted of determining a few fixed dimensions. I knew it needed to be tall enough to hold two 8X10 sheets at an angle to drip dry and deep enough to make such a tall cabinet as stable as possible. I also knew our laser could not cut material bigger than 18"X32" so there was the size limitation.
The cabinet needed to allow a constant airflow, but not allow dust particles to enter. Both the top and bottom of the unit have a baffle system that allows air in but not large particles of dust. For the finer particulates, a carbon filter slides easily into place over the intakes. You will notice that the design for the top intakes is different than the design of the bottom intakes. This was simply an example of me showing off.
Using the AMS Laser Service Template in Adobe Illustrator, I layed out my files on four 18X32" sheets.
sheet one: fixed walls
sheet two: baffled feet
sheet four:top and bottom
You will notice the common theme of inch long tabs on nearly every piece. I call them dove tails, which I am sure is making some veteran woodworkers cringe, and I use them to join edges when working with acrylic. This method makes gluing (which was done with super glue) a lot easier because it automatically squares all edges and allows the parts to stand on their own before the glue is dry. Also, the more surface area the glue touches, the stronger the cabinet will be. To create these forms, I start with a large rectangle, and then add or subtract my dove tails using the illustrator pathfinder.
The door is of a sliding variety, with handles designed to look like brass knuckles—just in case things get dicey in the Studio. The door is as tall and wide as the cabinet itself, and can be completely removed to allow film to be hung without contact while inside the box. It slides in a deep channel that helps keep out dust and makes it extra hard to open and close.
Inside, there are overhead rails from which the film will hang. Alligator clips will accommodate the easy insertion and removal of films.
The baffle system is a method of keeping dust out but allowing for constant air flow. This illustration shows how the top and bottom baffles work. The blue is air flow and the red is dust. The heavier dust gets trapped as the air is forced up.
This is a view of the bottom baffles intake and exhaust.
This is a view of the top baffle exhaust as well as the film hanging racks.
This is a view of the top baffle intake as well as a close up of the dovetailing.
And Finally, in all of its glory:
Just in case anyone was curious, the acrylic (I needed four full 18"x32" sheets) was $120. The vector length for the whole project was 1700” (roughly 3 hours of cutting time) and for those doing the math, .25” acrylic cut at this length would cost $207 on our laser. Total design time: 5 hours. Total build time: 15 hours.