Stuck on you.

Despite a slight apprehension towards welding, what with the sparks and the bright and potential damaging light, it proved to be mostly painless. It wasn't too hard, just a matter of developing technique and perhaps my project wasn't the easiest one to work with. After attempting to weld the first cylinder to a circle (with the help of a technician of course!) it proved to be a rather messy result, even somehow managing to, rather counter productively, weld a hole in the cylinder. This was most inconvenient as I need my apparatus to be completely light tight so for the second half, we decided perhaps to just spot weld around, enough to hold it in place and then fill around the base with a filler later.

I was unhappy at this point at the two cylinders didn't fit quite right within each other any more and looked rather haphazard. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with some paint, and of course the filler, so it was off to Placemakers for some metal primer which, as luck would have it, was coloured as well. I was intending to paint it black in any case so as to avoid light bouncing around, though it could have an interesting effect also, but it is not my intention at this point.

The black finish was a definite improvement and the fill was then added around the edge. It was at this point I realized that during this process of fabrication and construction, where it's form was ultimately determined by its function and purpose, the aesthetic value of it was still also and important driving force. The fill also significantly improved the appearance by not only sealing up the bottom to ensure the inside would be light tight, but smoothed out the rough ridges created by the welding and now it merely awaits another once over with some black paint.

On the final stages of construction now, it awaits the final touches to ensure it's intended functionality. The holes need to be altered slightly to ensure they line up to actually let light in, whilst checking that there are no unwanted light leaks. The interior cylinder needs to be secured inside in such a way to ensure it spins freely to expose all around it as it rolls, whilst restrained so that it doesn't actually make contact with the edges to avoid damaging the negative. Again, this could prove to have an interesting effect but it is not the effect I'm after. Perhaps when I have achieved the goals of my initial intention, I can then modify my apparatus to experiment with these elements.