Mikhail Tikh

Beautiful Minneapolis skyline. I love this city and wanted to create something that would capture a small element of it to share with others.

You can see most of the buildings I ended up using as the models for the chess.  The IDS tower on the left is the clear king as the tallest building in the state. Wells Fargo to the right of it is the queen.  The Campbell-Mithun tower with its pointed stepped roof made the perfect bishop. The Foshay, peeking out between the IDS and Wells Fargo is my pawn. On the right of the photo you can just see the Hennepin County Government Center peeking out, which made a great rook.  Not in this picture is are the Fifth Street Towers which I ended up selecting for my knights.

The buildings are approximately 1:3000 scale and scaled by height proportional to their real world counterparts.  I created the models in SolidWorks using photos, google maps, and Sketchup models for reference.

First print of the building concepts, sharing this photo over social media created a lot of positive feedback from my friends which gave me the motivation to keep the project going.

After a few rounds of iteration I printed the mold masters with the highest quality my printer is capable of, .1mm layers.

All of the masters printed and positioned on a chess board to check for final scale.

To get rid of all of he layer lines I sprayed the printed pieces with high build primer then sanded back down with increasingly fine grit sandpaper.  On the left is a sprayed pawn, and on the right is an almost finished sand job.

Many, many hours of painstaking sanding later I was ready to start casting.

I used Mold Star 15 from Smooth-On to make the molds.  It is a two part silicone you mix by volume then pour over the masters which are hot glued inside a foam core box.

On the left you can see a DIY vacuum chamber I hacked together for this project using a champagne bucket, plexiglass, pipe fittings and a bike tire pump on which I flipped the valve to pull air instead of pushing it.  With a little bit of elbow grease I can get down to 25 inHg of vacuum, not quite the ideal 29 inHg but good enough.

Here are all of the dump molds I created for the chess set.  Learning to get good casts without air bubbles was a bit of a process, the secret turned out to be baby powder! Dusting the inside of the molds with talc helps the resin to flow into all the crevices.

Here is an in progress photo of casting some pawns as well as experimenting with resin dye to find the right shade of black.

Chess pieces were cast using Smooth-On 321 Urethane resin, it is a two part resin that you mix one to one by volume then have just a couple of minutes to pour before it solidifies into a hard plastic.  Without coloring the resin a beautiful off white, and a special resin dye is used to tint the pieces black.

Once I got the process figured out I made castings of each piece to make a full white and black set.  A little over a pound of resin goes into the full chess set.

Printed in white, strong and flexible nylon via Shapeways.com

Roman Tali scoring system

Real bone master (left) and printed copy (right)

Real sheep knucklebones were scanned using 123D catch. Photographing against a black background then inverting the photos prior to processing improved capture quality.

Finished castle, photo by Andrey Rudenko

Photo by Andrey Rudenko

Photo by Andrey Rudenko.

Castle model designed in SolidWorks.

1/50th scale model printed on regular 3D printer.

Printing process, photo by Andrey Rudenko

Concrete layers detail, photo by Andrey Rudenko.

Project video by Andrey Rudenko.

Three knots of silver tip badger hair, it is the top of the line in luxury of feel and water retention.  One knot is for myself, the other two I plan to sell to fund the hobby.

All badger comes from China, and these knots took over a month to arrive.

Literal back of the envelope planning.

The wood I am using for this handle is an old maple table leg that has some curl in it.

The blank is rounded and put in a chuck.

The brush handle slowly emerges from the wood. I wasn't following a set  pattern other than my concept sketch, the shape evolves until I am happy with the proportions and lines.

A little bit of danish oil brings out the beautiul grain and curl.

Dry fit, looking like a brush!

Parted off the stock and mounted on a jam chuck.  This allows you to sand the bottom and apply the final finish.  I chose CA glue applied in about a dozen thin coats for durability.

All done, the knot is glued in with two part marine epoxy.

Another handle made out of beautiful African padauk.

Side by side, padauk on the left, curly maple on the right.

Last brush in African blackwood.

Gavin Duffy, the designer creating the Save the Date for the couple was kind enough to share the Illustrator source file for the vector portrait he created.

From Illustrator I exported the paths as a DWG and imported that DWG into SolidWorks as a sketch.

The paths imported from Illustrator were thickened and extruded to various heights to create the cookie cutter shapes. 

Printed in green PETG.  Approximately 3 hours of print time for both cutters.

Sugar cookie dough

Vector portrait created by Ruxandradraws on Fiverr from a photograph taken at our wedding.

Finished coin layout, I had to thicken some of the lines to get a deep enough engraving.

CAM layout in Fusion 360.

It took two attempts to get a good engraving, the extruded plexi I was using is not the ideal material but it was what I had on hand. The engraving was a little fuzzy and required quite a bit of manual clean up.

I cut the coin out with a band saw and cleaned up the edges on a belt sander. Next time I will adjust the angle of the sanding table a couple of degrees to add a slight draft. The last step was drilling lots of tiny holes for the air to escape from every divot when vacuum forming the molds.

This is a little dental vacuum former I have at work, it was the perfect size for this project.

For the mold material I used 3mm dental grade vinyl. It is the material that mouth guards are made from and you can get a pack of 25 for around $30 on Amazon. Here you can see the buck and the finished mold, I made a total of 5 pulls to speed up the actual candy making.

After trying traditional methods of chocolate tempering, and failing repeatedly I turned to science and technology. Serious Eats has a chocolate tempering method using a sous vide circulator. Step one is vacuum sealing the chocolate.

The sous vide bath is used to precisely raise and lower the temperature of the chocolate to promote correct crystalline growth, tempering the chocolate. Improperly tempered chocolate is soft and melts in your hands making a mess.

The tempered chocolate was poured into the vacuum formed molds.

The result, a few small bubbles but overall a success.

A beautiful piece of olive wood I ordered from eBay, about 16" long by .75" deep.

The inscription reads "Hamotzi lehem min haaretz" in Hebrew, it is a fragment of the blessing said over bread before every meal.

CAM setup in Fusion 360

Inscribing using my home made CNC router

The finished inscription is a little inconsistent in depth due to the wood not being perfectly flat.  A planer would have come in handy.

First course of inlay using crushed turquoise.  The crushed stone is piled into the engraved letters and soaked with extra liquid cyanoacrylate glue.  There are many great guides on YouTube on the process.

Sanding down the first course of stone leaves lots of micro voids, to fix this I crushed the stone further using a mortal and pestle and repeated the inlay process.  This step is repeated one more time with stone crushed all the way to powder.

Last application of stone in powder form to fill the last remaining voids.

The finished challah board after finish sanding and a few coats of cutting board oil.

The reverse side showing the gorgeous grain and live edge.

Closeup detail of the wood and turqoise.

The direct inspiration for this project is the wood spaniel from this online retailer: http://www.adventure-in-a-box.com/product/wooden-spaniel-wheels-pull-toy-dog-articulated-body/

Design in Solid Works laid out to fit on a 1x8 board.

The toy was modeled in Solidworks and cut on my CNC out of a single 1x8 board of maple.

The board I bought was only 3/4" thick so I cut a mirror of each part and laminated them together.  Doing this allowed me to machine in pockets for the inlays and extended hubs for the wheels.

I added a hub extension to push the wheels away from the body and give the toy a wider, more stable base.  In this photo you can see the sanding process on the rear of the toy. So, so much sanding..

The ears and spots were inlaid with walnut.

For sanding I used a dremmel with a rough sanding bit to rough in the shape then went back with 120 and 220 grit sand paper to smooth out the form.

I drilled a hole for the center hinge and pull string.  If I was to do this again I would drill the hole from the bottom and stop short of breaking through the top.  The wood was finished with a couple coats of Danish oil to bring out the natural grain of the maple.

For a final protective layer I put on a few coats of food safe lacquer.

The wheels are from the same board of maple.  The rear wheels have little inscriptions that will only be visible from the inside.

All ready to be played with!

The inspiration for this project is the beskar steel prop from the Mandalorian series.

Creating the pattern was an interesting challenge, not only to make it look organic but add the right 3D depth. I ended up using a manipulated image of Damascus steel and the 3D texture tool in SolidWorks 2019

I sent the finished design to an Etsy seller that printed it in high resolution digital resin. The print took a little cleanup and manual engraving to get the finish I was looking for.

Using the 3D print as a master I created a mold using high temperature silicone, MoldMax 60 from Smooth-on.

I hand carved the feed and air vent holes into the mold.

The mezuzahs were cast with pewter which is easy to work with in a home environment. Each cast took a little post-processing: drilling the nail holes and removing the sprue..

To get more depth out of pattern I applied black wash then sanded back the high spots. The finished pieces have a nice heft and look great, I am very excited to do more metal casting in the future.

The Toro sling chair by Blu Dot and the inspiration for this project.

I created the chair model in Solid Works based on images of the chair online.  I chose an approximate 1/3rd scale to match the 3/4" thickness of the plywood I had on hand.  I transfered the model to Fusion 360 for the CAM setup for the router.

Cutting the chair pieces on my DIY CNC router.

Chair pieces cut out and gluing up overnight.

A roll of leather that I have been hoarding for a while knowing it would come in handy one day.  It was rescued off a couch that was going in the dumpster.

Finished and sanded chair frame.

Painting the chair gray, of course the day I was painting was the coldest and rainiest day of the summer drastically slowing down the drying between coats.

Fitting the leather,  tricky to get the correct sling in the chair.

I attached the leather with furniture tacks I had on hand and rubber cement.  If I make a similar project in the future I'll look for smaller tacks that don't stick out past the width of the rail.

Finished chair model.

Nautilus Gears Printed via Shapeways.com

Nautilus gears render.

Model avilable via Thingiverse.

Model printed via Shapeways.

Animated mechanism.

First prototype printed in bronze via Shapeways.com

First prototype printed in bronze via Shapeways.com

After a few minor design refinements the final ring was printed in sterling silver.  The ring in the photo has been worn daily for months by the happy owner before I got a chance to get a photo.

The family words.

This is challah bread, the most delicious bread in the world and the inspiration for this design.

3D design of the somewhat abstracted braid.  The design was done in SolidWorks.

I have done some very basic cam profile cutting in the past but this is my first foray into 3D carving. The part is produced in three passed: first the material around the finished piece is removed in a pocket clearing operation, then a spiral scallop cut carves out the 3D surface, and lastly one more pass is made around the profile to separate the finished piece from the stock.

The first cut almost finished before hitting an oopsie.  CNC oopsies are a little more dramatic than 3D printing oopsies and involve loud noises and smoke from burning wood.

It took a little time to find the cause of the problem but it was a bad connection of the z-motor to the board which caused it to keep plunging into the piece.  Thankfully nothing on the machine broke and the bit survivied.

Assembled costume.

SolidWorks rendering.

Belt attached to slots in the Arc Reactor casing.

Assembly diagram.

Back of crystal showing wiring of LEDs.

Assembly video by Neek Lives

Beautiful carved box from World Market, appropriately made in India.

Test cutting on a piece of plywood, only one shot at the final box.

Engraving the text on the underside of the box lid.

Finished engraving.  The depth of the engraving was a bit shallow in a couple of spots and deep in others due to the underside of the lid not being perfectly flat.

Box with spices ready to be wrapped and gifted.

The CNC was designed by Allted and published on Thingiverse in 2015. It uses a combination of printed parts, steel conduit tubing, and roller skate bearings for the motion chassis.

All plastic components were printed in PETG for its strength and resiliancy.

All together the parts took more than 100 print hours and 3 kg of PETG.  Hardware was ordered online and conduit picked up at a local hardware store.

Due to having some components left over from building 3D printers, like lead screws, power supply, and a few stepper motors the total BOM cost came in under $250.

This is the central z-axis carriage for the MPCNC, it is a beautiful piece of engineering. 

Assembly of the frame minus the motion components.

To create the CNC work bed we used a side wall of an old oak cabinet.  We drilled holes on a 2"x2" grid and hammered in t-nuts to be used for clamping the work piece.

Moving around by hand to test for smooth motion and alignment.

The CNC runs on an Arduino Uno with a CNC Shield.  What you see in this photo is what happens when you accidently hook up the power supply backwards and blow the capacitors.

CNC squared and mounted to the work table. Cable chain was printed to hold the motor wiring.

CNC installed in it's final home, a corner of the garage.

Making the first test cuts in some soft pine.

Trying for something a little more interesting than circles.

With the build complete, the next challenge is learning CAM software and coming up with interesting projects to cut!

First step was to layout the design on a sheet of paper.  I drew one side, scanned it and finished the final layout digitally.

I did not own a set of french curves, but I do own a 3D printer! A quick search on Thingiverse and an hour of print time saved me a trip to the store and $10.

A paint study in acrylics on paper before attempting the final product.

The final design was giclee printed on canvas.

Canvas ready for painting.

Beginning the painting process using acrylic paint.

Finished painting.

Day of the wedding.

Working with my friend Fima, based on feedback from the couple we came up with a design for the ketubah.

The trees were hand-drawn by Fima.  I scanned the design and traced the shapes to convert it to a vector.

The final design is a mix of hand draw and stock vector images.  The text in the arch is a line from the Song of Songs by King Solmon: "Ani L'Dodi V'Dodi Li" - “I am My Beloved’s, and My Beloved is Mine”

Short clip of the cutting process.

Detail shot of laser cut paper overlaid on top of a sheet of gold paper.

Assembled with the text and ready for shipment to the wedding location.

Video is in Russian with English subtitles.  The couple participated in the shoot, but had no idea what was going on.  We filmed all three mini-movies out of order and mixed together for maximum confusion and they only saw the final product as a surprise during the wedding reception.

We try to mix it up for every new video we make, this one was filmed as a silent movie with the score added by a friend who is an incredibly talented pianist.

The most recent video created for my brother's wedding.  Our first musical!

Gene from Wet Hot American Summer featuring Can of Vegetables.

The talking can contains a small servo motor controlled by an Arduino Nano. Four AAA batteries provide the power supply, all held securely in a 3D printed housing.

The electronics fit snugly inside the bottom of a standard 300 series can.

The lid hinge was 3D printed and attached to the can and lid with magnets for easy disassembly.   The hinge and actuator arm are black paperclips to reduce visibility.

I cut a small hole in the can so it can be discretely turned on and off. The button and hole will be hidden by the label.

Hit the inside with a little black paint so you can't see the magic while the can is talking.

Found on the Replica Prop Forum.

Simple Arduino code randomly varies the speed of the motion, number of "syllables" in each word and pause between words.

Game pieces printed in clear PLA. Design by JAWong.

More printed pieces prior to priming and painting.

Hedgehog teether/rattle inspired by similar ones available online.. A present for my new niece, made from olive wood and purple heart for the beads.

Key hanger present for a friend.  Maple inlaid with coral and malachite.

Olive wood mezuzah inlaid with malachite.

A cedar privacy fence for our backyard patio. Built over a few weekends.

Balancing wine bottle holder.  Curly maple engraved on the CNC.  Getting the right cut angle was a little bit of trial and error.

A house warming gift for a friend.  Engraved store bought cutting board with an old Russian proverb meaning: It is not the decorations that make a home beautiful, but how warmly guests are welcomed.  It sounds better in Russian.

Toy cameras made from maple and walnut. The bodies were cut on the CNC and the lenses and knobs turned on the lathe.