Clowning Around.

[Dennis]

I’ve spent hours and hours trying to make a credible hair barrette, but nothing yet that will pass muster. No fun there. It’s on the back burner while I made something that I did enjoy: this clown face made from layered 3mm acrylic sheet, with foiled chatons and a short chain.
I’m particularly pleased with the nose, made by cutting a disk, mounting it on a nail and turning it on my mini lathe.
It cheered me up, so I hope you will like it too. Dennis.

[CJ57]

Thanks for this Dennis, I think we all need cheering up if we’re isolating. The nose is an inspiration, I would have been trying to do it freehand and wouldn’t have thought about turning it

[Sheen]

Love the chatons in his hair. A mini lathe! Lucky so and so not easy to make something nice and round

[Dennis]

Thank you Caroline. Dennis.

[Petal]

That's lovely Dennis and it made me laugh out loud. Love the nose too and yes, what a lucky chap you are having a mini lathe.

[Dennis]

Thank you Sheena and Jules. glad you think he's jolly. Dennis.

[china]

He is a cheery little fellow/ fellowess, what type of mini lathe do have
(11 deg and I am waiting for the gasfitter heater won't work)

[Dennis]

Hi Bob,
The Lathe is an Emco Unimat4, which I bought from Walsh, when we moved to a flat. It's a small table top toy really and no self respecting engineer would look at it twice, but it does some useful things for me.
For instance by mounting them on an expanding spindle, I can rapidly polish the outside of rings without spoiling their profile.
All I do is hold various abrasive pads against them, finishing with Micromesh.
Not engineering, but only takes a few minutes and no mess.

It's quite cool in London too, but we don,t need the heating. Dennis.

[Animalnutty]

That's one clown I can't imagine anyone being scared of, it's so sweet, a thing of beauty. I love the little nose, and the sparkles. They must have been very fiddly - how do you set them?

Karen

[Dennis]

Thank you Karen. The pointed-back foiled chatons are set in seats made with a setting burr, the same as in metal. The acrylic is very soft, so you have to be extra careful not to enlarge the hole. The glue used was Loctite Powerflex, applied very sparingly with the end of a saw blade.
Any surplus exuding can smudge the surface and be difficult to clean up.
The foil prevents the glue from showing. Dennis.