Failure. Lots of Failure. It started off trying to find the right kind of wood that could balance the SD. I settled for Basswood. Getting wood of the right size also proved equally challenging. I settled for ones with a similar surface area but shorter height. I would have to glue 2 pieces of wood together.

I sawed one piece of wood and glued the two together.

The quality was far from desirable. I had to file it down.

With that, the D was done.

Moving on to the SO. I bought a whole bunch of wire in hopes that I could fashion it into a spring- Don’t use wire to make springs. The material is just wrong for that purpose.

As a compromise, I bought pens so that I could use the springs to form the SO.

I foolishly tried using one piece as the SO, completely disregarding the fact that SD would be heavier. I soon realised my mistake.

I used multiple springs to create the above. This would have to embedded into the SD.

SD was supposed to be easy but proved to be the most challenging.

I used silicone putty to make a mould for epoxy to be the SD. After that, I had to fit the springs into the epoxy, but since the epoxy was still liquid, I needed to levitate the springs.

All was good until Wednesday when I realised that I had to start fitting all the pieces together on Thursday. The Epoxy was still liquid so I had to come up with a back-up. I used some resin that was recommended to me by the storeowner at the Hobby Shop (where I got Balsa wood for David). It would prove to be my saving grace. I made another putty mould for the resin to be fit in. Because the resin could only turn more malleable when put in hot water, I had to work fast to fit the springs inside before it hardened. It worked.

The epoxy did not dry in time so I used the resin instead. I might have messed up the proportions. I had to create a small hold in the basswood to fit the springs inside. I picked out the wood filing and carving tools for the first time.

 

It might have looked a little rough but I thought it was good enough. I jammed the springs in and used hot glue to bind it all together. The final product:

The resin could definitely look neater but I think that this was an enlightening experience overall.