The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Punched Cards: Apollo Eagle Card Layout

With some lessons learned from the first pass, the bottom layer of the Apollo Eagle gets a reversed card for the white tail feathers:

Apollo Eagle - Layer 1 card layout
Apollo Eagle – Layer 1 card layout

Which looks like this just after cutting the outline:

Apollo Eagle - Layer 1 as cut
Apollo Eagle – Layer 1 as cut

Gently removing the scrap from the edges reveals the eagle:

Apollo Eagle - Layer 1 cutout
Apollo Eagle – Layer 1 cutout

The top two layers also come from a reversed card, with those shapes arranged to put the holes in attractive places:

Apollo Eagle - Layer 7 8 card layout
Apollo Eagle – Layer 7 8 card layout

The five layers in between as a slide show:

  • Apollo Eagle - Layer 2 card layout
  • Apollo Eagle - Layer 3 card layout
  • Apollo Eagle - Layer 4 card layout
  • Apollo Eagle - Layer 5 card layout
  • Apollo Eagle - Layer 6 card layout

It took a while to get over cutting up all those nice cards.

Some deft glue stick work produces a layered eagle:

Apollo Eagle - assembly overview
Apollo Eagle – assembly overview

I managed to get a dark bottom in the nostril, which turned out weird:

Apollo Eagle - head detail
Apollo Eagle – head detail

All in all, though:

  • Fewer layers are better
  • The head came out OK-ish
  • The bottom layer card arrangement is too fussy
  • The olive branches still look weird
  • The claws are still ugly
  • The tail needs more contrast, perhaps two layers
  • Having horizontal card splices aligned on successive layers is bad

More study is definitely in order …

Comments

Spam comments get trashed, so don’t bother. Comment moderation may cause a delay.