Yesterday afternoon, I was finally able to cut out the pieces of my flume, and prepare for assembly. It was slightly surreal for me to finally see these plans come to fruition, as this has been a work in progress for a while now. I will share some pictures in this blog post, as well as talk about the strategy and key aspects of the cut and design.
When making these cuts, precision was always the key. Since we are trying to hold in water, they have to fit together perfectly. Thus, we also decided that it was best to cut all the pieces about 1/16th bigger, and to sand them down later. To ensure precision, we used the machined side of the plexiglass for the two longest cuts, which were the side walls. The reasoning behind this being that machined sides will be laser-cut, which guarantees exact measurements and smooth edges. Since the side walls will have the largest contact surface area, it made the most sense for those to be the pieces with the machines sides.
Since we were dealing with a large piece of plexiglass, we had to use a handsaw over a bench saw. This was unfortunate, since it takes much more caution to make a straight, precise cut with a handsaw. The model we came up with was to have a straight edge that was clamped down right against the cut, so that the saw could essentially lean up right against it. This took fatigue and human error out of the picture, since the saw would not veer when I got tired. Also, it gave a good line to cut against, which meant I didn’t have to guess on if I was cutting straight or not. The masking tape was put over the cut, so that the plexiglass wouldn’t get marred by the saw.
The smallest, and most accurate, cut was the back plate, since it had three points of contact. It was a 9.5″x19″ rectangle that fits up to the back of the flume. To cut this, we used the remaining 24″x46″ rectangle of plexiglass. The bench saw was used to ensure accuracy and precision on the cut, and I think it turned out pretty close. The official cut was 9-9/16th, so that we can a snugger fit. The next step on the progress to assemble the flume, which will be done using a plastic-welding solvent. The next post will address the idea behind plastic welding, and the inspiration behind the project!