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
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Old and new blended seamlessly
I love to blend old fashioned, hand crafted ways with the modern tools. Digital tablets, virtual sculpting with a modern computer program, file building with EnRoute, and the CNC router of course are blended with hand sculpting, carving and painting to create our art pieces. In the last two days I used a wide variety of tools. I sketched on paper with an old fashioned pen to come up with a concept. Then I used a digital pen and tablet with a computer to put together the final concept. The rough sculpt was done using a virtual digital sculpting program. The was imported into EnRoute to create a routing file I then sent to our MultiCam router.
Once the MultiCam had done its job it was time to break out the hand tools to add the finer features and detail. The sculpt will be done in stages but I made good progress in the first go.
The right tool for any job is the one that works best. Tomorrow I'll do some more.
