fandomhigh | Shop Class; Tuesday, Fourth Period [03/12].

Entry tags:

shop

Shop Class; Tuesday, Fourth Period [03/12].

"Now, last week," said Amaya, grinning faintly as she got started with the lesson for the week, "we worked with our little mini-forges to melt down some metal and fill previously made molds to make little metal biscuits, right? But those molds had to come from somewhere, which means that there's someone who made those, too! Now, of course, these days, in this world, you've got a lot of big factories pumping out a ton of these things, but, where I'm from, there was someone making these things by scratch and by hand, and there's a variety of different methods, but, today, we're going to learn how to do a method called sand casting so that you can know how to make your own mold of pretty much near anything you'd like!

"So take a moment," she said, "to go through some of the miscellaneous items we've got on hand here in the shop until you find something you'd like to make a mold out of, and then we'll all go through the process together and see what we come up with! Me? I've got this here wooden shamrock, because, well, that's a holiday coming up here soon so why not? But you can make a mold about almost anything, though simpler shapes will always be better than something with too much detail. Anyway, enough about that, find something you'd like to make a mold out of and then we'll get started."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Molded into a shape?

Eleanor Zarrin

Stark

Beaker

Gonzo the Great

Well, the meat of the lecture is going to go along with making the molds, so maybe just use this time to ask questions right out the gate if you have them and spend some time trying to figure out what in the miscellaneous and moddable items would make a good mold!

Of course, Amaya will also chat a little bit about how this whole thing is working as she leads you through the process and hopes you're following along.

Stark had done this before! When working on making a mask for himself. So he was feeling fairly comfortable with the idea and just needed to look for something to make a mold from.

Who is a little distracted, admittedly, thinking about sandcasting some of those Squishy machine parts for the T&C if they ever do come in, to save them all the trouble next time.

Hopefully not so distracted as to miss Irene's slight figure leaning in the door with the now-customary pair of cups she tended to show up with. (You know, those damn baristas, blah blah, excuse, excuse.)

"What was today's lesson?" she greeted Amaya, offering out a bright smile with the question. (Also, credit where it was due -- she often could suss out the lesson just from visible materials, but today she actually hadn't figured the answer for herself via a glance from the doorway. A minor feat, when it came to Irene.)

Amaya was generally of the opinion that a figure like Irene's (or, rather, more truthfully, a figure that was Irene's) was pretty much impossible to miss, but she also gotten in the habit of glancing toward the door in general toward the end of class, for some unknown and mysterious reason, though she would vehemently deny ever doing such a thing if anyone should bring it up).

"Sand casting!" she announced proudly, as she came over to help relieve Irene of the burden of at least one of those cups. "It's where you use hard-pressed sand to create an impression of something, then fill it in with molten metal to make a mold from it."

One of these days, really, Irene needed to time it so she caught the actual end of class. She loved watching Amaya teach; however, she had remained conscious of not wanting to potentially embarrass her -- or worse yet, somehow undercut her authority with her students -- by turning up with post-class coffee and a walk home where students could witness.

(The fact that this coffee and walk and any affection therein would be reported on by one of those students on the radio did, of course, slightly undercut that logic.)

"And the sand maintains the mold well enough?" Irene supplied as she passed over the coffee with a slight softening of her smile, impressed as always by a simple-seeming technique. The things human civilization had figured out before batteries, amazing. "That's quite clever, really. And probably helps with the endless cycle of needing to make molds in order to make things, right?"

"With enough pressure and the right amount of moisture," Amaya offered, "it works like a dream! Of course, finding that balance is the tricky part of it for most students, but once you get the hang of it....not my preferred method of casting, there's plenty of flaws in it, and I'll take a forged mold over a sand casted one any day of the week, but it's good in a time crunch or a rush job or to get some details that not even the most meticulous smith is going to get very easily."

There was a grin on her face as she spoke, and it definitely lingered there as she adjusted the cup in her hand to drink.

"And what've you been up to so far today?" she asked, almost like a challenge to see if it was anything more exciting and thrilling then pressing sand together and pouring melted metal into it, which, you know! Good luck!

Okay, like. There was no way Irene could resist lifting an eyebrow at that first statement, Amaya. Come on. Let's all be glad she left it at the raised brow.

But that grin and Amaya's enthusiasm were enough to steer Irene from her momentary occupation with moisture and pressure, and back on track -- for, you see, Irene actually came with a mission today. Possibly one exciting enough to even compete with pressed sand. (Possibly.)

"Nothing much," Irene told her. "Mostly been looking into possible avenues as far as celebrating one's birthday."

That one's was a deliberate, playful word choice. Why reveal whose birthday you meant, when there were two coming up within the span of as many weeks, and it could be one or both or neither?

Even with the leaps and bounds of progress that Amaya had made in recognizing innuendo (sometimes even before it came out of her mouth!), there would definitely always be some that slipped through the cracks.

But that was neither here nor there because Irene's answer did actually have the potential to be more interesting than pressure, moisture, and sand all together! Maybe even the molten metal!

Amaya blinked.

"Ah, zards," she said, "that's right, that is coming up here soon, isn't it?"

Amaya didn't usually even remember when her birthday was until a giant cupcake showed up on her doorstep from Daventry, but she did recall discovering that Irene's wasn't too far off of it.

Oh, zards, it wasn't today, was it? Should she have remembered? Amaya was going to have to try and play this cool (something she was notoriously good at!) to make sure she hadn't messed up big time.

"Did you...uh...did you come across anything interesting so far?"

Now Irene got to play a little game with herself, in which she tried to decide whether to attribute Amaya's (always great) attempts to play it cool to anticipation regarding her own birthday, some trepidation regarding Irene's (perhaps a worry it had already passed?), or a combination thereof. Or, potentially, wariness at whatever proposal Irene had brought with her, which would, honestly, be fair given her track record.

"You know," she pointed out, casual, "we didn't get a real holiday, this time around. Lots of days between my birthday and yours, if we wanted to get away for a moment."

There. A bit of mercy, and an acknowledgement that perhaps if Amaya's day was still a ways off, then maybe Irene's had yet to occur.

Amaya was squinting a little as she drank her coffee.

"How many days apart was that, again?"

Oh, yeah, she was so smooth, that detective class was really paying off!

Although, to be fair, maybe she was asking because she remembered Irene's, and was trying to work from there toward her own! You didn't know!

That elicited a genuine, and very undignified as a result, snort from Irene. She rolled her eyes upwards -- not sarcastically, but as though carefully counting up a number, and offered, "Nine?"

As though she did not have Amaya's birthday circled on a calendar somewhere, honestly. Maybe with a heart.

"And if memory serves, we will both be thirty-five."

The way Irene's voice dropped on that number, like it was a secret (and one anyone would care about), all but begged for mocking over the fact that she'd be bearing that mantel alone for a full week and change.

And in the event that Amaya should ever glimpse such a calendar, may it merely serve as a friendly reminder to ask Irene about how....her heart surgery? went.

"Your memory serves correct," Amaya confirmed, with a faint snort of her own. It served much better than Amaya's anyway! But she had a number now, nine days, and was just going to tuck that away to work out in which direction later.

"And what were you saying?" she then asked, grin going a little tilted as she looked over at Irene. "About that last holiday being everything you ever could have dreamed of and more?"

Edited 2024-03-12 18:39 (UTC)

"It was different," Irene granted, as though under terrible strain to come up with something complimentary, or at least diplomatic. "But you know, wouldn't it be fun to go somewhere where no one needs to worry about bedbugs?"

To be fair, Irene was pretty much the only person doing that on this last trip, but that didn't mean she was wrong. Really, it meant the rest of you lot simply weren't vigilant enough, probably.

"Where rides aren't broken, or threatening to break," she continued, adopting a dreamy tone as she gestured expansively with her cup. "Where there might not even be clowns at all, and the food on sticks is abundant and also probably has passed all sorts of perfectly requisite health measures. Think of it, Amaya."

"I don't know," Amaya mused, squinting again, this time with a barely hidden smirk and a stroke of her chin with her non-coffee hand. "It's not like bedbugs take up that much space, and no rides breaking down means no opportunities for me to wrench my way in there to fix them! I am with you on the clowns, though. And I'll admit, some of those things on sticks made even me question a few life decisions..."

I love the internet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shop Class; Tuesday, Fourth Period [03/12].

Sign In - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Sign In - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Sign In - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Sign In - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Sign In - Shop Class, 03/12.

Listen to the Lecture - Shop Class, 03/12.

Class Activity: Sand Casting Mold Making! - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Class Activity: Sand Casting Mold Making! - Shop Class, 03/12.

Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - Shop Class, 03/12.

OOC - Shop Class, 03/12.