Amazing installation!

This past week Peter and I flew out to Oshawa, Ontario to visit NEB's Fun World. After almost a year in design and construction the bulk of the pieces we built and transported there have been installed. The NEB's crew did a fabulous job! Our task was to do a few touchups, install some of the signs and do the texturing and faux finishing on the upper portions of the side walls. 

The pieces had never been previously fitted together s our shop is simply not nearly large enough. The sheer scale of the project is amazing. Our panels, fit together, covered more than four hundred feet of wall! 

As we worked I thought back to the first concept drawings done of the project. The first drawing is one done by Peter as we started to work out he logistics. It is of the left corner.

The picture below is of a similar angle and it is amazing how close we came as we designed. Once the ceiling panels are ct and installed it will look even more like the concept.

A second drawing which I did a little later worked out more of the details for presentation. A few things changed as we proceeded. The archways had to be flattened out a little to keep things legal for the serious bowlers. We were still working on the colors at this point as well.

Since our client had his own CNC router it didn't make sense to do all the pieces in British Columbia and then transport them across Canada. We simply provided the cutting files and he took it from there for the grass, tree and mountain silhouettes.

Despite the pieces being loaded, transported more than 4,000 kilometres, unloaded, and lifted into place they were in almost perfect shape. We created more than a hundred pieces in all and they fit together almost perfectly. We did only a little caulking to fill a couple small gaps. Two days of on site painting finished our work.

The NEB's crew was still lifting the last of the posts into position as we worked and has yet to cut and install the ceiling flats but it is coming together quickly. The tough part of the job is that they did it without shutting down more than a few lanes at a time. While they worked guests were still bowling around them. Below is a panorama shot showing the immense nature of the job.

There is more to come as well. Special lighting is being tested and will be installed across the entire back wall. The owners will be able to create special lighting effects and shows which will be spectacular!

We now head back to our studio to begin design for the e=next phases of the project. This is going to be fun!

Last load to NEB's

It has been well over a year since we did the first concept art for NEB's Fun World. The massive bowling alley was the first project to be green lighted for construction. We designed hundreds of  files using EnRoute.  Our MultiCam Plasma cutter got quite a workout as we cut scores of sheets of plate steel into pieces for the bases and tops of the posts as well as countless bolting plates, lifting lugs and braces. All of the steel was then jig welded together.

We then cut thousands of pieces from more than a hundred sheets of three quarter inch plywood on our MultiCam CNC router. These plywood pieces were bolted to welded steel frames.

The decorative inserts and signs were dimensionally routed from 30 lb Precision Board. They were mounted to the plywood. Galvanized lath was stapled to the plywood and then a thick coat of fibreglass reinforced concrete was troweled on and sculpted to look like wood, bricks, stone and plaster.

Then the painting crew worked their magic, first with three base coats of paint, followed by the glazing and dry brushing.

Today we welded up the last of the large steel pallets and fasted the giant posts to them in pairs. In the next couple of days we will load the last pieces for this phase of the project into the semi trailer and send them on their way.

Another award

The sign collection for the Pin & Crown Pub were honoured once again. This time it was a first place award in the Signs System category of the Sign Media - Canada.

Another trailer loaded

With everything ready to go prior to the fifty-three foot trailer arrived we had a whole day to load it. This meant we could do the task without rushing. The pallets were numbered and one by one we carefully brought them to the truck and slid them into position. Since we don't have a loading dock we instead used the forklift along with a custom designed, two piece push rig that fits onto the forks. We can reach into a trailer about thirty feet. The pallets each weighed up to two thousand pounds but slid easily on the smooth trailer floor.

Each pallet was equipped with temporary dolly wheels which facilitate easy movement of the heavy pieces around the shop as we build. As we lifted the pallets with the forklift these wheels dropped off effortlessly, ready for reuse on the next project.

With all of the pieces stuffed into the trailer securely there was only four inches of space left by the door. Some scrap dunnage was tossed into this space to prevent any movement on the journey.

The total time to load was just over three hours. Tomorrow morning we sent the trailer on it's way.

Packing for the trip

We think carefully about how we will move our pieces in the shop as we build them. They need to be safely lifted into the transport truck and secure while they are being transported. Once on site our customer needs to easily and safely move them once more, lift them into place and secure them in place permanently. It is easy to say but requires lots of thought and engineering to pull off. 

The planning starts as we design the pieces with lifting and mounting points built in from the start. The combined weight of the pieces for this shipment is about fifteen thousand pounds.

Tomorrow the trucking company will drop off a fifty-three foot long trailer for us to load. It will leave on Thursday morning. Today we shifted our efforts from production to packing. The pub signs we finished late last year were cut off their temporary stands and welded onto a new custom designed steel pallet. Underneath the signs four post backs will rest. These heavy pieces will provide ballast weight to keep the top heavy signs in place.

The pieces are fabricated from a variety of materials including, steel, plywood, concrete, sculpting epoxy and 30 lb Precision Board. Each piece has hard points built into the piece for lifting, carrying during transport and final mounting.

The pallet holds the six pub signs as well as four post backs which go on sideways, in pairs on each end of the pallet.

The massive (and heavy) posts sit on a structure that mimics the six by six steel posts they will surround when they are mounted. In the background two arches are mounted back to back and at a slight angle for safe moving and transport. Ten of these arches will fit on this load.

Almost done

It's a bit hard to believe but we are at last nearing the end of the first phase of the NEB's fun World project. We have seven more posts to assemble and sculpt to finish this stage of the project. Through the last months we've designed hundreds of CNC files. We've cut up more than a hundred sheets of plywood, tons of sheet steel and many sheets of Precision Board. All those pieces have been fitted, welded, screwed and glued into place.

This project simply couldn't have ben accomplished without the help of the high tech materials like Precision Board, EnRoute software and our MultiCam CNC machines. It has been both challenging and fun!

As the crew finishes this job I am busy designing for the next phase. That too will require the help of these marvellous tools.

Using EnRoute as a design tool

With the bowling alley now almost complete we are ready to move on to the next phase of the NEBs project. That is the Pub area. We had done some preliminary renderings last year. The primary element was the giant still. At that time they were going to dig out a section of the floor to create a lower level and then build a mezzanine level above. The tall still was to have been the centrepiece straddling both levels of the seating area. Those plans have been abandoned.

The still survived the changes but now needed to be shorter and located in a different place. We started with the CAD drawings of the pub area. I imported them into EnRoute and then did the new plans over top. Our new idea was to create decorative beams/arches from the back wall. They would come up to a row of posts which were in the same line as the still. The beams would serve as brackets for heavy industrial piping which would go from the still to the bar area.

Once I had the ideas worked out in scale I grabbed a screen capture. This was taken into PhotoShop to do my freehand rendering using different colours for the various elements and sections.

Once I had the ideas sorted out it was back to EnRoute to create a new scale drawing of the still and beam system.

A screen capture of the drawing was then used as the basis for the freehand rendering, once again done in PhotoShop using my iPad Pro and pencil.

The back expansion area got a slightly different style beam with a post on either end and the pipe down the middle. It too was redrawn freehand and coloured on the computer.

One more drawing was necessary for the presentation. That was a typical post with one of the pub signs attached. It matches the posts we created for the bowling alleys.

Last of the arches sculpted

The NEBs bowling alley project temporarily took a backseat to some other pressing projects but as they went out the door we went back to work on the last of the arches for the bowling alley. Today we reached a milestone as the last two of the concrete arches were hand sculpted today.

There were twenty-six arches over the bowling alleys and another five arches down each side of the massive room, making thirty-six arches in all. We have five more beams to complete as well as twelve posts for the centre of the room.

The many pieces for this job required that we designed files and routed more than a hundred sheets of plywood and scores of sheets of plate steel. It's been a big challenge to get it all right so it fits together seamlessly on the job site - more than 2,500 miles distant.

Another load down the road

We loaded twelve large arches along with two large pallets of smaller pieces into the trailers on Monday and sent them on their way to NEBs Fun World in Ontario. We have more pieces finished and waiting until a few more are done before we send along another truckload.

We've completed two of the ten side arches. That leaves only eight more large pieces (of thirty-eight total) to go on this project. The side arches are a little different than the ones over the lanes as the bottom section is filled in. They also have oversize pennies instead of the number plates. The crew did an awesome job sculpting and painting the pieces!

Deadline met - thanks to a hard working crew!

Our meeting in Florida went great. While we were away the crew kept exceptionally busy. They did a fabulous job Too.

All the pieces for the front of NEBs bowling lanes are now finished. There are fifty-two lanes in all which makes for a lot of pieces! The details look superb!

The pieces for the bowling alley fronts are made up of a number of materials and building processes. The MultiCam plasma cutter got a good workout for this project with many hundreds of pieces cut from sheet stock. These were welded into larger assemblies which were then welded to square tubular steel frames. We screwed 3/4" plywood to much of the surface and then stapled expanded metal mesh to these areas. They all were covered in Fiberglass reinforced concrete and then hand sculpted to look like brick and plaster or wooden beams.

Detailed pieces like the number plates or carved 'wood' inserts were routed on our MultiCam. There were hundreds of these pieces. Everything was skillfully hand painted and then carefully aged with glazes. When the pieces are all joined together they will form more than 400 feet of wall!

In the next days we will fill the second semi trailer bound for Oshawa, Ontario. I can hardly wait to see it all together!

A bit of a rush

Generally we don't fight deadlines in our shop. We like to plan our jobs carefully so we can finish ahead of schedule on most occasions. But every once in a while the world seems to conspire against us.

We looked over the things we needed to do prior to our next shipment to NEBs in Ontario. We consulted with our client and then scheduled a truck for the delivery. All was good. Then we had a three day snow and ice storm. That cut last week's schedule a little short as we lost staff for those days. This week is a short one as Monday was a holiday in British Columbia. At this point our relaxed schedule is no more. The truck leaves next Monday in the early afternoon.

It meant that the whole crew has been painting and will continue to paint for the next couple of days. We cranked up the heat in the shop and broke out all of the large fans to move the ir around in a big way to help dry the paint.

With everyone helping with the painting it is going quick and looking good. Some of the pieces are already finished, some nearly so and the rest need their final coat of paint plus the glazes. It's going to be close but I'll bet they will finish on Friday afternoon with five or ten minutes to spare.  :)