Let Peace Begin With Me

An it-almost-worked experiment setting type in the round: I just couldn’t find a way to make the type hold (I need some sort of “expands from within” circular clamp, like the opposite of a pipe clamp).

Despite the failure, I was happy that I got this far; the result could have been lovely.

Comments

Oliver's picture
Oliver on December 15, 2022 - 01:38 Permalink

Mechanical clocks and watches have spiral springs of metal ribbon, so I wonder if you could find appropriately sized metal ribbon of similar properties and if that could be useful.

Dave's picture
Dave on December 15, 2022 - 15:49 Permalink

Why not use a pipe clamp and "open" it to expand the size?

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on December 16, 2022 - 07:51 Permalink

My first thought exactly. Except that pipe clamps have the big “clamping” mechanism sticking out one side, so aren’t round. I also though about simply turning a pipe clamp inside-out, and that showed promise, but renders the screw mechanism inaccessible.

oliver's picture
oliver on December 20, 2022 - 02:32 Permalink

Sounds like you want what I’ve seen called a spreader (bar) clamp, which I think is a fairly basic carpentry tool I’ve seen at Lowes and I bet you could find lots of places

FAS's picture
FAS on December 17, 2022 - 08:33 Permalink

The outside hoop of a vintage spring-loaded embroidery hoop wrapped with black rubber, self-adhesive weather strip - carve out an area for the spring to be hidden in the foam. Place the hoop inside and then you can block and tighten as the spring mechanism will allow just a little flexibility to push against the lead type to hold them place.

James Crombie's picture
James Crombie on December 17, 2022 - 18:03 Permalink

Peter
3d printing is your friend here. a multi segmented ring to fit inside and a tapered plunger to push the segments out. think of something like a muffler tube expander. Send me some dimensions and I will send you a render of it.