WELCOME!


It is hard to believe that it was only seven years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Through extensive research I quickly found out that with the relative simplicity of EnRoute, CNC routers were capable of just about anything imaginable. This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as we continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful software... -dan

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Main signs finished at last

One of the first pieces we designed and routed for Scallywag Bay Adventure Park was in fact among the last to be finished. I designed the hull shape for the small ship and posted it back in May of 2014. Here's the two step by step entries of that process...   Entry one   Entry two

The sign was designed as always by hand and with the computer to create the vectors.


I sliced the ship's hull into layers using EnRoute and then routed them from 30 lb Precision Board on the MultiCam.


The pieces were then glued up into the three dimensional hulls. This is how they sat for the better part of a year while we were busy with all of the other pieces.


When we picked up the project(s) we added a few missing pieces which we quickly cut on the bandsaw. The armatures for the ship's masts were made from 5/8" steel rods.


A thin coat of Abracadabra sculpting epoxy was formed over the two ships and hand sculpted with all the detail. 


Then the painting process began beginning with the base coats - three layers in all.



Lastly the glazes were skillfully applied by our painting crew.


The sign faces were also painted separately before being added to the sculpted fibreglass reinforced concrete bases.