A general reference source for all terms used in the DT Online Learning, including details of where to obtain resources specified in the course materials.
It is essential that classroom staff and pupils are protected whilst performing tasks as part of their project work and avoid exposure to potentially harmful air borne contaminants such as aerosol adhesives, aerosol paints, lacquers, resins, fixatives, airbrush sprays and solder fumes. Air filtration cabinets use multi-stage three stage, graduated fibre filters to ensure that exposure levels are below the recommendations and in some cases almost eliminated.
The Burin or Graver is a tool used for hand engraving.
They are used to create surface decoration by incising lines into metals by silversmiths and gunsmiths for example. They are also used by printmakers to cut copper printing plates or wood printing blocks. Jewellers use them not only for engraving but also to set stones - see The Ganoksin Project.
In use, it is typically held at approximately a 30 degree angle to the surface. The index and middle finger typically guide the shaft, while the handle is cradled in the palm. Always make sure you are not pushing sharp tools towards your hand!
The camera obscura (Lat. dark chamber) was an optical device used in drawing, and one of the ancestral threads leading to the invention of photography. In English, today's photographic devices are still known as "cameras".
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. Traditionally it was a hand process using small cutting tools called Burin and was how copper printing plates used to be made. Hand engraving is still used today be artist/craftsmen but most is now done using a CNC engraving machine.
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. It can be used just to apply surface decoration or to make printing plates and blocks
Notice the engraver's hand is placed well away but it is better if you can always have your hand behind the cutting edge of any sharp tools!
An interface is simply something which joins one system to another. A control interface is one which enables a computer to switch things like bulbs, buzzers or motors on and off for example. Control interfaces can have built-in memory so that once programmed from a computer they can operate completely independently even when they are disconnected from the computer
Optical Illusions occur often when 2D drawings create confusing views of reality. These are more specifically known as 'literal' optical illusions
Perspective drawing is an optical illusion in that a 2D drawing is made to look like a 3D object. Converging parallel lines, like railway tracks give the illusion of depth and distance (see Ponzo illusion) and parallel vertical lines in a perspective drawing can sometimes appear curved (see Hering illusion)
In Isometric drawing, beginners often get confused about which surfaces are at the front and which to the rear. This is a well-known ambiguity (see Necker cube) and the artist M.C. Escher exploited this in many of his paintings.
A milling machine is a machine tool used for the shaping of metal and other solid materials. Milling machines exist in two basic forms: horizontal and vertical. A VMC is a Vertical Maching Centre.
