Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello, everyone. I hope
you're doing well today. My name is David and welcome to this class where you
will learn how to create this interesting
Sci Fi floor panel made out of plastic
from scratch. This floor panel is
a good source of inspiration for anyone
who is looking to enhance their
crafting skills and wishes to explore how to
work with new materials. Also, because a panel is
completely made from scratch, you will have complete control over your design and you can add as many details and
plastic layers as you wish. In this class, you
will learn how to draw your template
over the plastic, cut glue and sand
your plastic pieces, and finally give the
panel a final painting. Another great thing about
this project is that you only need a sheet
of styrene plastic, a few other tools that you
can easily get online, or that you already
have at home, such as a pencil
and cutting ruler. The final project for this
class will be to create your own Sci Fi floor
panel prop from scratch, using the methods and techniques that you will learn
in this course. So without any further
ado, let's get started, and I'll see you in the
next lesson where we will draw our template
over the plastic.
2. Drawing the template on the plastic piece: Welcome to the first
lesson of the class. In this lesson, we're
going to focus on drawing the guidelines
of our floor panel. So for this part, we'll be using a small piece of
staring plastic, a ruler, and a
mechanical pencil. You can also use a
traditional pencil, but I strongly suggest you use a mechanical one since
it will help you mark and draw lines you need more evenly throughout
the entire project. The first thing we
need to do is to cut out the panel at the
desired measurement. For this, I'm using
my square and my ruler and just make sure
everything is well aligned. When you're happy with that, use your execta knife to carefully cut out the excess of plastic. Always make sure you have
a well sharpened blade. So if you see the current blade completely worn, you
might want to change it. To cut out the plastic piece, use your ruler as a guide and slowly pass a knife through
the lines you drew. And the thing with
siren is that you don't actually need to cut a
piece with the blade, simply make a small mark
and the plastic would automatically bend and
snap apart from itself. This will also give
you a cleaner edge. Now, we need to draw
the rounded edges and an inner frame of 1.5 centimeters on the
entire rectangle. You can use any round
item for the edges. In my case, for instance, I'm using a leather snap button. Ss. Then divided rectangle in half vertically
and horizontally by drawing two lines at
the center of the piece. Once you draw these lines, add them some width by giving them offset lines on both sides. In my case, I gave these lines
a width of 1 centimeter. When you're done, divide the two large horizontal
sections of the panel in half. Draw a line that crosses through the entire section of this
part as you'll see here. Then mark 2 centimeters on each side of these
lines you just drew. This will be your guideline to a code will do on the
plastic later on. After you mark and draw
these vertical lines, draw a 1 centimeter of set line parallel to the horizontal
length of the plastic piece. Then at 1 centimeter
from the edge of the intersection of the
vertical and horizontal lines, draw a diagonal line as shown. So these steps might seem a bit confusing at first, but
that's actually okay. Once you get through
the entire process, you understand why
each slides were made, and it will make your work much simpler when cutting
the plastic piece. In the next lesson,
we'll start working on the details and sections of
our main part. See you there.
3. Preparing the main part: Great. So now we have
the main plastic piece with all the construction lines, and what we need to do
next is start cutting out plastic parts that we
don't need in our design. So as you can see here, I'll
start by removing the edges on the diagonal intersection that we drew in the last lesson. And for this, I'm
using a whole puncher so that the edge looks
as rounded as possible. So use a whole puncher
and a poly mallet to punch right between the
horizontal and diagonal line. We drew at the end
of the last lesson, as you can see here. Then with the help
of a cutting ruler and your exacto knife, start cutting the diagonal
lines out towards the main panel and the
horizontal lines that join them. This will leave a trapezoid
shaped plastic piece that you must remove carefully to avoid damaging the panel. Now, because the cuts
will most likely leave some plastic
residue on the panel, you can send this off using
a 220 sand grit paper and a small rectangular tool to hold the paper straight
when using it. This will prevent the
sending to go irregular. Then repeat the process on both sides of the
panel as shown. So the panel we're
working at has some bold details on each
side, and to make them, we need to first mark
them with a ruler and mechanical pencil and then use our L to strongly
mark those bolts. Some of these bolts are going to have a rounded uplifting shape, and we will be working with those in the following lessons. For now, make sure
you mark your bolts well and use a scratch to
highlight their position. And with this section finished, we can now move on to the
next lesson. See you there.
4. Removing the rectangles from the main part: Now that we have our panel with the bolts marked and our
guidelines highlighted, we can start removing the rectangular parts
from the center. And to do this, we'll be using our whole puncher and
poly mallet once again, but this time punch inside the four edges of the
inner rectangles. Then with your exacto knife, cut out the rectangles
going from one edge of the circular hole
you just made to the other and stop short
of the second circle. You will then need to
cut a small amount of plastic the other way around. This is to prevent
the blade from going further than
we want it to go. Since siren can be
slightly slippery, it's best to take precautions. Uh, Now, Sunday inside of the
rectangle shape that is left over with a 220 grit paper to remove any excess
of plastic and repeat this process on the other three rectangle
shapes of the panel. When you're done, you can use a very fine sun grid paper
to smooth all the edges. If you plan on leaving the panel as it is without painting it, you can simply erase the
guidelines with an eraser. But if not, you can leave the guidelines since they will be painted later on and won't
be seen in the final result.
5. Leveling the main part: So in a previous lesson, we mark the dot's position on
the main plastic part. However, doing this, it forms the back part of the piece
and leaves it irregular. This wouldn't be
a problem if this piece is all that goes, but since we will be glued
to another plastic piece, these irregularities
will prevent both plastics to
glue well together. So to avoid this,
we need to leave the backside of the main
part as even as possible. And to do this, we can sand those marks with a
strong sandpaper using a straight object as a guide or simply your bare
hands until we make sure the surface is
as even as possible. M.
6. Rounding the edges of the main part: So this step of the process
is absolutely optional, but it will give the panel
a nice touch in the end. Rounding the edges of the
main part is very easy to do, but you need to be
careful on how you handle your exacto knife to
get the best result. Making a rounded or curved
cut in the starring can become quite challenging if you've never done it before, since the plastic can
behave very loose or you can easily cut a
piece you don't want it to. So always try to go in small
cuts like you see here. To cut the edge, you
simply pass the blade in small straight lines on
the edge once you draw the diameter you wish
to cut and then send your piece using a
220 sand grit paper.
7. Making the small bolts and installing them to the main part: At this point, you
should be able to have the main plastic part
ready and levelled. Now we can start
adding some detail before working with
the small rectangles. To make the small dots, we need to punch them
out from a scrap piece of plastic with a whole
puncher and a poly mallet. If you don't have
these items at hand, you can cut and
send them gently, or you can even turn the main
piece upside down and use the irregularities
we've talked about in the previous lesson as
the bolt for the design. However, if you do
manage to make them, you can glue them to the main part using your
preferred type of super glue or epoxy resin
and a pair of tweezers, as you can see in the video.
8. Making the small rectangles: To make the small
rectangles that go in the middle of the
panel is very easy. However, there are a
few considerations to make the project
look more detail, and this has to do
with the distances left between the edges. So to begin with, you can start
by drawing a rectangle on a piece of plastic using the whole of the main
piece as your reference. Then draw an inner offset of 1 millimeter on every side of the rectangle you just drew. You can start drawing
the rounded edges if you wish to do as well. Now, draw a diagonal
line that goes from one edge of the
rectangle to the other side. In this case, I cut the
entire plastic piece solar to have more control
over the rectangle. Draw another diagonal line
from the other edges and a horizontal line that passed through the
entire rectangle. Now at your preferred distance, draw two diagonal lines from the horizontal line you
just drew on both sides, as you can see here
and mark an upset of 1 millimeter on both sides
of that center line. U With you expect a knife, carefully cut the sections with the offset you just
drew and then send them well with a 220
or 320 sandwit paper. Now, these sections will be
glued to a rectangle with the same dimensions
as the one you just drew using the main
piece as a reference. So cut the rectangle and with your preferred super glue glue both pieces together
as you can see here. In this case, I'm only going to glue one of the
sections to leave a small section upwards and glue some small bolts as we previously did with
the main piece. We When you're done, you should have a piece
looking something like this, and you just need to
duplicate this part three times for the four sections
of the main piece. Oh
9. Painting the metallic pieces: Painting the metallic pieces is a very fun part of the project, and it actually involves
painting the pieces twice. Since we need to paint to
a deer welded a plastic, we need to apply first
a color of primer. In this lesson, I'm
applying spray paint and using a gray color primer
to all the metallic parts, making sure they're
completely covered in paint. Then after around
30 minutes when I'm absolutely sure
they're thoroughly dry, I send them using
a 3,000 grit sand paper to make the surface smooth and remove any particles
from the surface. These particles make the plastic feel rough and it's
a good idea to leave it as smooth
as possible before applying a final coat of paint. After another 30 minutes, I went on and used a
metallic spray paint and painted the pieces applying
two to three coats of paint.
10. Making the back piece: Once all the metallic pieces
are dry and finished, we can move on with the
back part of the panel. This is done using
a rectangular piece with the same dimensions
as the main part, but leaving the edges sharp without sending them
as you can see here. Now, this part is going to be painted differently
from the other pieces, and that's actually
going to give the whole panel more
realism and character. So because of that,
we need to make sure every detail like any bolts or cuts you wish
to make are done before gluing it to
the rest of the parts. So for this part, just add any details you wish
before painting it, and then we can move on to glue all the pieces together
in the next lesson. H.
11. Glueing the pieces together: So after painting the
backside of the panel, our dark side should
look something like this and it's ready to be
glued to the other part. Since the parts have
several coats of paint, it's best to use an
epoxy glue for this job. Epoxy glues usually come into
tubes that when ejected, need to be truly
mixed together and then apply to the surface
you wish to adhere. In this case, I mix the glue for around 2 minutes and with
a small piece of plastic, carefully applied it to the
backside of the main part and the small rectangles and then glue them to the back part. In the end, the piece should look clean and well assembled. Always be careful
when applying this or any other glue to your projects
and not apply too much to prevent any
excess of glue from staining your work. M.
12. Giving the panel a second look: In this final lesson, I wanted
to show you how different your project can
look when applying a clear neutral spray paint. I have painted the
panel all white to give the impression of
a neutral prototype, and this has its advantages
over other finishes. Monochromatic prototypes
help you analyze any details and
imperfections better since your attention is only focused
on its form and you're not getting distracted by
any colors or highlights. It also cast a neutral
shadow everywhere, so you're able to see if
there's any section that needs to be glued or handled
before it's finished. In the next and final lesson, we'll talk about
our final project. For now we have
finished our panel, and I'll leave you
with some more shots of this alternative finish.
13. Final project: Welcome to the last
lesson of the class. I hope you've enjoyed
watching this class, and it's time to work
in our final project. The project for this
class is to make your own plastic
Sci Fi panel using the materials and techniques
you've learned in the class. The design is
absolutely your choice. Remember, you can always come
back and see the class if you need any assistance on
how to create your prototype. So good luck with your project
and don't forget to upload it once it's finished so other students can see it as well. Also, if you like the class, I invite you to
leave a review and to follow me for more
crafting classes. Have a great day, everyone.
David Gonzalez, Industrial Designer
