WELCOME!


It is hard to believe that it was almost ten years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated with what I saw 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 and LOTS of hands-on practice I quickly found out that my MultiCam router was capable of just about anything imaginable.This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as I continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful tool... -dan

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Rolling out the barrel - part two

I routed the barrel pieces from Precision Board on the MultiCam. Since I would be sculpting all the detail by hand I used a large (3/8") ball nose bit with a relatively low overlap (60%) . I blew the dust off each side and then hollowed out a slot for a welded steel frame with welded eye bolts. Then I used PB BOND 240 one part glue to join the pieces together. I screwed and clamped the pieces to make sure everything stayed put permanently.




After the glue was dry I hung the sign and evened out the glue joints with the die grinder. Then I pressed on a thin coat of Abracadabra Sculpting epoxy onto the ends and sculpted in the boards for the top and bottom of the barrel. It only took a few minutes. I had considered figuring out a way to deconstruct the barrel and build the files for each board in EnRoute before routing them and then reassembling them physically but decided this would be quicker. When the new four axis MultiCam arrives I would do it all on the router in an instant.


When the two sculpted ends were set up it was time to begin the individual barrel staves. I will be doing them as I find the time in the next while. On the first go I managed two staves



I'll be showing more pictures as we progress. Stay tuned

-dan