INDN 211: Tertiary Production Phase

Well, the plastic has been vacuum formed, and I've gotten the CNC lathed pieces of steel back. One of the first things that I needed to do was to mould these sections to the wooden grips. The reason I needed to do that was so that they'd actually fit. The pieces were vacuum formed flat, with only the raises in them, however, for them to fit on the grips, they needed to have a much more defined curve in them, a unique fit for each separate raised section.

The next thing I had to do was spray paint them black. I chose black because it would ultimately be quite close to the walnut colour the stained wood would finally get, while at the same time being different enough to make a contrast.

Wanting to have an element of uniformity, I decided to roll with the CNC lathed sections being the same black colour as the grips. This usage of only two colour sets (besides the white brush tips) will keep the contrast minimal and make sure that I have a single unified aesthetic.

I got three separate brush sizes, measured them up, cut them up, and then drilled the holes in the steel tips to fit the brushes. These brush tips I then glued into the steel points, and then I wrapped the brush elements in masking tape before spray painting everything. Once it had all dried after multiple coats of paint, I went to work on making the sections fit into the grips. This mostly just involved screwing them in and out of the grips multiple times, as as to wear them in a bit.

Looking lovely! I then gave the same treatment to the discs and the weights. Original plan was to put some white dots in little notches I drilled into the tops of my weights, but I actually think I'll leave that part out, as it doesn't really add that much, and it is another colour element that I don't need.

Meanwhile, in stain-land amidst brown and sticky fingers and messy paint brushes, I'm reaching the point of completion. Two base layers of the Sikkers HLS, followed by two top coats of the Filter 7, and the grips are looking decently dark, while still retaining the beautiful grain.

Following that, I then attached the grips to the first two and the discs to all five of them, which was a mission in itself. Then I followed up all the stain with a top coat of varnish, to give the pieces a consistent semi-shiny satin finish. Looking good!