Vino

Vino was my final project for ME365, Sand Casting, and was designed around a project theme of “balance.” After taking a trip to Napa Valley, I was inspired by the sights of old, weathered cast signs that I saw decorating the wineries of the region, and I decided to leverage sand casting’s unique ability to capture fine detail in a scalable fashion in order to make a balancing wine stand. Designing the part was an interesting challenge in volume/mass constraints, and my goal was to use aesthetic features as a disguise for functional properties. The center of mass of the part is distributed such that it is balanced down the center-line of the part, despite the off-center appearance of the bottle, and it is low enough to allow for the part to perfectly balance when a bottle is placed inside.

The pattern was 3D-printed using an Ultimaker printer in PLA, and poured in Everdur c873 Silicon Bronze. Post-machining created a 45 degree slant in the base that allowed for the balancing feature. Light sanding removed surface occlusions/sand wash, but I applied an artificial patina to the surface in order to re-darken it for a naturally weathered/rusted look to the part.

Vino was a particularly fun project for me because it was a unique design problem that proved to be a lot of fun to work with. Additionally, learning how to design a part that could be easily scaled for manufacturing (as was the intent of the class) was also interesting-Once the pattern is finished, post-processing was a smooth and quick process. Finally, I sought to challenge myself with utilizing CAD to design something that was intentionally organic looking, another challenge that proved to be very rewarding. Testing the product for the first time and having it work perfectly was of course, the cherry on the top.