Major update: church interior

[henrik_o]

Hello all. Been away from the forum for a while, far too much work and a meddling broadband connection, but now things are starting to settle down.

I'm going to use this thread as a repository for a lot of things we've done for a newly constructed church here in Sweden. I'll try to update it continuously over the next week.

I hope you like it, everything here was designed, constructed, made and installed by my company.

[henrik_o]

Let's start in the wrong order, with the last contract for this church, which is not yet installed.

The following is a candle holder with a capacity of 72 candles, made entirely of brass. Basic shapes were cut with a waterjet, construction cuts and a lot of "3D" machining was done on the shopbot.

This strategy worked very well; contracting out all machining would have been very expensive and there's issues with the accuracy of the waterjet.

By contracting out basic shape machining we cut costs on both ends: cheap waterjetting and it basically did away with the need to make elaborate holddown pucks for the shopbot. Since we received irregular shapes from the subcontractor and didn't have to work with sheet metal, the shapes of those parts were cut into blanks to make negatives, with a snug enough fit that gently tapping the workpiece into place was all the hold down we needed.

Obviously, the actual machining took a LOT of time, but all the work to get to that point was almost ridiculously easy.


1774

Above we see the 'Arch of Light' (which will 'embrace' a 4 meter high crucifix) in an angled position to be sanded post-soldering.


1775

Here's the whole piece being sand-blasted. We decided on a sand-blasted finish since a polished look would simply have become too much, all the reflections tended to break apart the form elements.


1776

A close-up of the arch. If you have good eyes, you can see that the disc beneath the candle cup is slightly curved on the upper surface. It's hard to see in photos, but in person it adds a lot to the overall impression of the piece.


1777

A view from underneath. Since this is what the children (and the occasional frog) will see up close, we wanted it to be pleasing from this perspective as well. I think it works.


1778

Another shot of it in the workshop, being balanced in before the final sandblasting.

All in all, I learned a lot on this project and it was a great first try and appetizer regarding metal work with the 'bot. Not a single bit was broken, I have a much better understanding of cutting strategies, and I really feel I'm on to something using this two-tiered approach; waterjet for rough shapes, shopbot for detail.

We'll install this next week, and I'll update the thread with some pics of the final result, hopefully kitted out with 72 candles!

[henrik_o]

Next up, a small but quite delicate little side project: a pulpit for the sound & lighting equipment. It needed to be raised from the floor for the seated operator to have a good overview, and also have nice ergonomics in a small package that still had to enclose all controls for the audio and computerized light system.


1779

Above, a view from the front. We decided that the pulpit had to have an unassuming yet elegant exterior that would blend in well with the other interior elements we designed. Making something like that out of what is essentially just a tall box took some time to arrive at, but I think it works reasonably well. Material is beech.


1780

A view from the operator's end, in the folded down and locked position. The raised floor necessitated a railing for safety, it was made out of beech and stainless steel bars.


1781

Lid folded up and doors opened; this is the basic operating config, where there's no need to control the audio and light systems in real time: you can reach all basic controls/trays/etc easily for those routine events where the operator doesn't even have to be seated at the pulpit through it all.


1782
Open Sesame; this is the config for a dedicated operator who is doing real time control of audio (via mixer) and lights (via touch panel). You can't tell from the pic, but the mixer unit is connected to the screen by some hidden levers: as you pull out the mixer (ball bearing slides) the screen also folds up in a single motion. It took some experimenting to get it right, but it has a certain "oooh" factor that was very much worth it.

All in all, we spent a tad too much time on this to make it a profitable project, but it was enjoyable and I learned quite a few things. The sound/light technicians were collectively shocked & awed, so there's probably going to be more work coming in from their end.

[harryball]

Absolutely Beautiful!

[phil_o]

Outstanding.

[steve4460]

Hi Henrik

That looks cool . It would also make a good SB control cabinet for the shop that way things would be covered up when not in use .
Nice work . Bot on