Shake, rattle & roll

The pieces of the streetcar fit together just like they were meant to. It only took a few minutes with a sanding block to smooth out the pieces and it was ready for paint.

I added the pick-up poles which were fashioned from some welding rod in a hurry. I first painted the base colors and then added a dark red glaze to highlight the textures. A little gold leaf added some bling to the lettering. With the MultiCam a detailed piece was produced in only a few hours, about half of it while I was working on other things.

It's pure MAGIC!

-dan

Like a jigsaw puzzle

I set the MultiCam in motion routing the streetcar from a piece of 1.5" 30 lb Precision Board. Even after more than four years of running the machine I can't resist sneaking into the router room to watch the MAGIC happen. A streetcar appeared on the table in less than an hour.

The bottom of the sign was created as a separate file. First came the vector files, then the 3D reliefs were created including our famous textures. It didn't take more than twenty minutes to create the routing file - complete with tool paths. When the streetcar was finished I put the MultiCam into gear once more...

Things were looking pretty cool. I'll show how it went together in the next installment...

-dan

It starts with a sketch

Every project we do starts with a sketch. This one was done while I watched TV with my wife on our couch. There are far too many commercials but I put the time to good use. It's much more productive than going to the fridge for a snack.

Then I produce a vector drawing in EnRoute which will be used to produce the 3D routing files we need. This drawing took about an hour to produce. I broke the project into pieces, imagining how it would reassemble when the routing was done.I built each relief separately and then merged the pieces together for the final result. This is a screen capture of the file ready for tool pathing in EnRoute Pro.

Then the fun would begin for real on the MultiCam...

-dan

UNLIMITED TEXTURES!

What I loved most about the MultiCam was it's ability to create any texture imaginable. I've long believed our signs need to tell a story - to keep in theme with the project we are doing. Years ago we were all enthralled with the ability to sandblast wood, and create wonderful reliefs of the beautiful grains which were present in the wood. Now by using bitmaps we can recreate these same textures in High Density Urethane. We can in fact create any pattern imaginable, easily and quickly. We can do it without wearing one of those nasty sandblast hoods too!

Over the course of a year I made up bitmap files for more than a hundred textures - all proven on real projects we ran on our MultiCam. We now offer them as a collection to help others create textured work on their machines. Go to our website and look under TEXTURES. They are pure magic!

-dan

Cleared for takeoff!

There were also a bunch of three dimensional pieces to make for the plane - all routed out of 30 lb Precision Board HDU. The MultiCam was used to make all the windows, engine housings and motors and propellers for the plane. While we worked on other things the machine was busy too producing parts in record time.

I worked with two helpers on this project and we produced the plane from start to finish in less than two weeks. As soon as it was done it was out the door and on the way to the Mall of America. I flew down by a commercial carrier and supervised the lift into its permanent home. It was nothing less than spectacular!

The MultiCam had proved itself once again. The plane weighed in at 1950 pounds - 50 pounds lighter than required.

-dan

Fastest jigsaw in the west...

Even when we were merely cutting out pieces of plywood we wanted our MultiCam to do the most creative cuts possible. This was the perfect project to prove it. The plane was to be amphibious, have two giant engines and a wingspan of 24 feet. The engineers insisted to hang it from the steel trusses it needed to weigh in at less than 2000 lbs. We were up for the challenge. I welded up a steel frame and set the MultiCam into motion.

As fast as the parts came off the machine we bolted them into place. We skinned this with lightweight spruce plywood and screwed in thousands of fasteners with fender washers to resemble rivets.

The nose assembly was whittled out of giant blocks of beaded foam to keep weight at a minimum. The MultiCam had saved us hours and hours of work and produced flawless parts in a hurry. After a couple of days of work it was starting to look like a plane already! I was liking it better all the time...

-dan

One down...

In only ten working days we had done the impossible. The train measured twenty four feet long and looked like it weighed TONS. In fact it weighed in at a lightweight 1800 pounds. But we couldn't sit and enjoy our achievement for long. A truck was waiting to take it to Minnesota and we needed the shop space for the next piece for the project.

Here's one last shot though showing how spectacular the train looked when it was lifted into position. It looked like it had been abandoned on the trestle and left to rust for decades.

Stay tuned for the next project we did with the help of our trusty MultiCam...

-dan