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, February 8, 2017

ALL HANDS!

We've routed many hundreds of pieces of plywood and plasma cut hundreds of pieces of steel. Then the frames were welded up, the plywood fitted and attached. Then we stapled on the mesh. We do these jobs in batches to be efficient and to also get ready for the next step - the sculpting.

Sculpting fiberglass reinforced concrete is a messy process. It too is best done in large batches. We carefully plan out what we want to accomplish each concrete day. Then we mix and apply the concrete like mad. The process of towelling on the specialty mud is relatively quick. Then we wait until it sets up just a little.

Our most skilled sculptures begin the carving process, laying out the work and beginning the carving on key areas. As the concrete begins t cure more crew members join in. At some point the call goes out for all hands which means every crew member drops what they are doing and comes to carve. The less experienced members team up with the pros and are coached through the process. In this manner everyone is trained and we accomplish a great deal of work each concrete day.

As we work towards completion some members drop off and begin the cleanup process with more of the team joining is as they complete the sections they were working on. The most experience members do some last minute touchups and checks to make sure it is all perfect. There's no going back tomorrow to make corrections for by then it will be rock hard.

With this teamwork we rarely need to work overtime and we accomplish a lot of detailed surface area. ALL HANDS make the process work flawlessly every time.