Posts with a theme

We used a heart motif as a theme on our house. Little hearts are routed into all of the outside trim. We created hundreds of files and then machined even more pieces. These were all painted up and gazed to form a one of a kind house which we really enjoy.

This same theme extends out to the fence posts as well. The panels were all designed in EnRoute and then cut from 30 lb Precision Board on our MultiCam. Amazingly we went through more than a hundred sheets of 1" thick board to do the inside and outside of the house.

The east side of the house has no windows as it is closest to our neighbours. It's a big wall and the ground is lowest in this area. The rock 'wainscot' is the same height as the rest of the house but is about six feet tall in this area. To dress it up we built pillars about every eight feet. Into Each pillar we set a panel featuring the hearts motif. We painted it up to match the rock work and to look like it was carved in stone

When we located Becke's modular home on the property regulations and a sloping property again mandated a tall wall on one side of the trailer. Like the house we brought the ground up about three feet on this side but there is still a lot of wall showing. The blue siding will be brought down over the skirting with rock work covering the concrete foundation. The pillars will extend from the ground to the top of the skirting. We will again locate the pillars approximately eight feet apart to match the house.

The forms for the pillars were built from pressure treated 3/4" thick plywood. The area below the plywood will be extended with welded steel pencil rod. Galvanized lath will be fastened on before we do our hand sculpting of the rocks.

Becke got to pick the theme for her house and because she is an avid birder she picked birds of course. Peter designed two different sized panels. It is a simple silhouette of birds on a branch. He laid a woodgrain texture over the entire panel. I'll post more pictures of the progress as we proceed.

Routing magic

We used EnRoute to create more than 200 routing files to design components for our house when we built it. Those files were used to create thousands of components, both in the construction of the structure and the finishing inside and out. For the trim we used about a hundred sheets of 30 lb Precision Board (mostly 1" material) and many more than that of MDF. The MultiCam router was used to create all of the round window trims, wainscotting crown mouldings, the bridge sides and the corner blocks on the windows and doors throughout the house. The CNC tools allowed us to incorporate details which would have been impossible to do by hand.

The house has now been in progress for almost four years, and now at long last we are down to the tiny details. We've been living in the house for more than two years and when that happens the finishing details seem to take even longer than they should. In the last months a little more work was done and we took delivery of the long awaited dining room furniture. This afternoon the light was perfect as the sun shone through the giant round window to the south and I captured a good shot of the finished dining room at last.

The last of the trim

Some projects, particularly those we do for ourselves can seem to take forever. We've been slowly but steadily working on finishing all of the details on the new house, which we moved into more than two years ago. Inside we have things pretty much wrapped up but on the outside there was a little more to do. The last area that needed it's trim was the giant front window. We did the decorative concrete work, which needed to be done first, early last summer. The big projects of last year meant everything was then set aside until they were done. Last month I finally built the routing files and let the MultiCam do it's magic. On rainy fall days I've had the painters busy in the shop doing the base coats and glazes between paying projects. But there haven't been many rainy days. This week the last of the painting was at last done. It was time to get the trim into place. We brought out the scaffolding and set to work. In a couple of hours the trim was up and finished at last.

love them posts

We are down to the final details on the house project. Through the construction we did over 200 routing files and created thousands of pieces. Now we are down to the last few at last.

The side wall of the house is plain with no windows and so to break up the plainness we added purloins to the lower rock section of the wall. Into these we placed routed heart panels in keeping with the theme of the exterior of the house.

We decided to use these same panels in the fence corner posts to further continue the theme and color out to the road. For the two corner property posts I was able to use the same routing file which I had created for the house many months ago.

The driveway presented a challenge however. On one side we built a concrete tree to hold up the big gate. We will plant some vine plants to generate foliage in the upper branches.

On the other side of the gate we have a tower which houses all the services (water, power and telephone/data for the house and shop. The gate post on this side is a taller version of the fence corner posts. Since we wanted a heart panel on this piece it meant I had to create a new one to be routed.

I started by opening the old file of the shorter panel. I had save it with some of the right sized heart vectors just in case I needed them later. I created a rectangular vector around the plane.  This was used as the starting int for the new taller panel.

I then angled the sides of the vector to align with the sides of the old one Then I stretched it out to be 42" tall.

I then used the outline tool to create an inside vector that formed a 2" border.

I then rounded the corners of the panel using a 1" radius.

Then I created a flat relief of the center portion of the panel. I would merge(highest) the different layers of hearts to this panel in later steps. I then pulled in the three different angles hearts arranging them down the center portion of the panel. These hearts would be the highest of the three levels of when we were done.

I then added enough heart vectors to fill the panel. Before I went on the the next step I merged highest the heart shapes to the original rectangular relief. Once merged, the original hearts were deleted. With those hearts out of the way the next steps were easier.

I then went down the panel selecting every second heart which I then created as the next tallest eight reliefs. These too were merged highest with the background relief.

The second heart reliefs were eliminated.

This same procedure was repeated one last time on the lowest level of heart reliefs.

The panel was then ready to be tool pathed in EnRoute. I used an island fill and 1/8" ball nose bit with an 80% overlap. The last step was to use an offset cut to trim them to shape.

-dan

Routed door trim

We've kept the MultiCam busy of late with the fancy house trim around the front and back doors. With the trim install the front door became much more welcoming.

The patio door and posts also got the full trim treatment

That leaves only the big front window.

-dan

Installing trim

The routed pieces were mitered and then fastened in place.  We then used sculpting epoxy to fill the holes and seams before painting.

The pieces will get three coats of base color and then three layers of glaze. The hearts will be then painted pink to match the corner block trim on the rest of the house like in the background of the photo.

Today the last of the trim was painted for around the circular windows and doors. We'll be installing that tomorrow. Stay tuned...

-dan

Final details

We've created more than 200 routing files for the trim on the house and routed thousands of pieces over the last two years. In the last three weeks we've been working hard to finish the outside and this includes creating even more routing files and then routing a bunch more pieces. Thankfully there aren't many areas left to do.

The trim around the front and patio doors was routed yesterday and assembled today. This afternoon I created the routing files for the decorative bands around the patio posts. I thought them worth posting as they involve three different procedures that are a teeny bit tricky.

The decorative bands are 8 inches wide and are comprised of four pieces that will be motored to fit. As usual I started with some vector files created in EnRoute.

 I then created a fat relief using the large rectangle.

Next I created a thinner flat relief of the three crews that would be embossed on the final piece.

I then added domed hearts to the centre panel.

I then added some woodgrain to the rectangular shape using one of the bitmaps from my TEXTURE MAGIC COLLECTION. This shot shows how I stretched out the bitmap to allow the rectangle to fit into the section of woodgrain I liked.

I used a value of 0.15 inches for the woodgrain.

I then merged using the REPLACE function. First I selected the relief I wanted to modify.

Then =, following the prompts I selected the areas I wanted to merge.

 As quick as that the panel was ready to tool path. But I needed eight panels so I duplicated them and arranged them to fit onto the piece of 30 lb Precision Board I would route them from. Then I used a 3/8" ball nose bit for the rough pass with a 50% overlap. The final pass was done using a 1/8" ball noise bit and an 80% overlap.

Here's a shot of the pieces on the MultiCam.

Tomorrow the completed pieces will be mitred and then painted before they are installed on the house. I'll post a picture of the completed door and the posts as well.

-dan

House article in South Africa

Janis and I designed and built our new house for ourselves, to enjoy and be comfortable. It is also designed to showcase the things we are passionate about. Although there is still a lot of work to do to totally finish it off the house has garnered a lot of attention already. The latest was a feature in a South African architecture magazine.

I was interviewed late last year by a fellow from England who was writing some articles about how EnRoute Software was being used. He loved our house and thought it was worth a mention. That article was picked up by the magazine.

HEARTS! everywhere.

We are wrapping up the routing on the house project for the season as we move on to begin the major customer project that will take us into NEXT summer. The crew is split right now with half finishing up the work on the house and the other half busy on the new. My job is to juggle and organize everyone, plus the final planning for the big project plus the preliminary planning for the next after that. I'm also trying to squeeze in as much physical work as I can as well.

Half the shop is stacked with almost completed trim in the final stages of paint. Most are the square trim blocks that will go on the intersections of all of the house trip. It is a colorful sight! Next week they will all be out of the shop and onto the house at last!

The house is now looking spectacular with the bulk of the trim in place. It is hard to believe how many pieces were designed in EnRoute, and routed with the MultiCam from 30 lb Precision Board. The project would have been almost impossible any other way. I'll be posting pictures soon of the house with the trim all in place.

-dan

Last routed piece for the inside of the house.

Today a long awaited piece is on the MultiCam. It's the last piece for inside the new house.

In the last nineteen months I've created more than 200 routing files in EnRoute and we've routed thousands of pieces. Now the last piece is on the router for the interior with not many left on the outside to go.

 It's been quite the adventure - our largest routing project to date. Just the same I'm gonna enjoy simply living in the house instead of working on it regularly.

-dan