It fit!

 A project like the MutliCam project may well be the brainchild of one person but it takes plenty of people to pull it off. Even the original idea I started with gets plussed and improved by the input of everyone who works on it.  Today was moving day. The receptionist's desk which had long lived in my shop was on it's way to it's permanent home. Donna and Rebecca helped me push it out into the daylight. Then neighbor Gord, and his hired man Kevin helped boost it onto the trailer. Gord's forklift helped out some too. We strapped down the load and headed off for the real adventure...  getting it into the new building. The sidewalk was narrow, the tree really close. And it had to be twisted as we went through the double doors.

Once everyone was pushing and pulling in the same direction things went smoothly. Jonathan, the contractor worried about us scratching the building. I fretted about anyone scratching the desk. The combination of us working together was magic. We lifted, push, pulled, twisted and turned until the large desk was in place - without a scratch to either the desk or the building.

The lamp arms fit under the ceiling too. It was a miracle! We had done only base coats on the desk - just in case. The cabinet maker, Dave, showed up right on time to take measurements and notes. He'll add the desk top and drawers in the next days finishing things off nicely.

Meanwhile we'll be busy at the shop once more finishing off all the bits and pieces. The MultiCam is busy and we are sculpting, carving, assembling and painting up a storm. Stay tuned...

-dan

Ready to go!

The crazy pace continues as we near the deadline for completion of the MultiCam project. Tomorrow the weather continues to be nice but the weather man promises a change on Thursday. With our desk too large to put in a box trailer it has to travel out on a flat deck. That means it's moving day tomorrow.

The desk arms are pretty much done and the desk will have it's first coats of paint finished first thing in the morning. We'll load it on the trailer easily here at the shop with the large lifting tools on hand. At the other end it promises to be a different story. The desk will have to be man handled off the trailer, over a retaining wall, into a double door and then twisted as we go in because it simply isn't a straight go with the desk being 12 feet long and 'L' shaped. We've scoped it out and it should go well... but we aren't putting on the final coats of paint until the desk is where it belongs. A scratch or two may just happen... which I'm perfectly OK with... as long as no one gets a scratch on them.

As we were painting the lamp arms this afternoon I asked Rebecca to paint the flexible hoses some bright color...  just for fun. She came up with the most brilliant green possible. It makes me smile every time I see the hoses. We'll see if the color passes muster with the powers that be.

As the MultiCam whittled the last batch of 150 rivets out from a sheet of Precision Board I checked the records to see just how many we used on this project. Between the nautical board room and the front desk we used just shy of 1500 rivets. I suspect we will use a few hundred yet on the staircase feature. I have the coolest idea for that project!  Tomorrow when We get the desk in place I'll take some measurements and notes, a few photographs and scribble out some ideas I have in mind. You can count on the staircase rail not to look like anything you have seen before. Stay tuned...

-dan

MultiCam TV

As I often do I mocked up the various bits and pieces of the TV surround as soon as they came off the MultiCam. Everything was routed from 30 lb Precision Board. I had also cut a 1" thick back piece that fit snugly around the TV. The front surround will fit over the face of the TV about 3/8" or so. The gages are cut in two pieces and will have a red LED inside to give them a neat glow. 

A friend of mine, Shawn Cherewick, phoned me today offering a cool way to have bubbles suspended in the green, glowing 'liquid' which will partially fill the tube. He suggested a special wax jell which we will heat, color and then pour into the tube. A green LED in the bottom will provide the glow.  I'll be looking for those supplies tomorrow.

I glued up all the bits today, leaving them to cure over night. Tomorrow we will start in on paint and the detailing. I can hardly wait to fit it into place around the TV. Stay tuned...

dan

Down to the details

As we wrap up the painting in the MultiCam board room I am turning my attention to the details which will abound in the room. Last week I whipped up the door trim which instantly turned the doors from ordinary to something befitting this room.

On the inside I used the MultiCam to cut some MDF in a shape mirroring the white board door. I fasted this to the plain door and then used the circular hole in it as a template to cut the portholes in the door. Another simple shape I had routed formed the inside and outside trim with the plexiglass sandwiched in between. A few dozen rivets cut from 30 lb Precision Board finished things off. The doors will be painted a copper color with lots of weathered patina to age it appropriately.  The outside of the door is relatively pain with only the portholes sneaking into the hallway. I suspect a colorful starfish will slither out into the hallway too - much to the chagrin of the interior designer.

Yesterday the owner brought in the large LED TV which will be mounted to the end wall opposite the white board. I measured the big TV carefully and took notes too. It simply can't be left stock as it has to fit into the theme of the room. Over the next days I will be building a frame which will surround it. The key is to not block any venting or disrupt the operation of the TV controls. Here's the concept drawing.

 Since the gages and the liquid tube will be lit with Heico LED's I had to figure everything in as I designed. The vector and routing files were created in EnRoute. There will be an 'M' embossed into the face of the gages just to continue the theme to the max. I'll print some faces for the gages and glue them in as we assemble the TV surround, along with some plexiglass.

I'll let the file run on the MultiCam as we go to spend one last day at the site before the cork floor goes in on Monday. There is an extra gage for the white board in the same routing file.

The room is gaining notoriety locally as word spreads from the trades working on site. Each day we get more and more folks visiting to get a first hand look. The owner is bringing every prospective client by to look things over and show them the amazing things that can be done with a MultiCam. 

It is working beyond expectations already - just as I figured it would. Build it and they will come!

-dan

Learning new things.

With each project we take on I know I will learn many new things. In the case of this project it is true many times over. Because we are stretching the limits of what we do with the CNC router in our effort to show what it is capable of I have learned many new things on that front. We've experimented with new colors and glazes asa well. The rapid texture feature of EnRoute was a whole new field of endeavor for us.  And because it has been a while since we have done an industrial project we have discovered many new things about our current building code and how it applies. With our wanting to build something truly different the learning curve has been multiplied exponentially.

This week I volunteered to do our own T-bar ceiling in the MultiCam board room. I knew what I wanted and felt it would just be easier and quicker to do it myself as part of our duties instead of letting the contractor take care of the task. How hard could it be? Little did I know that T-bar ceilings now have to meet stringent building codes and be seismically stabilized and engineered. I also opted for ceiling tiles with a reveal... not knowing they have a 1/4 lip instead of the standard half inch one. I had to be super accurate and on my first curved ceiling too. Each bar I put up had to be seismically tied to the structural ceiling above as did each pot light and fixture. The fellow doing the standard T-bar ceiling in the rest of the building had a good laugh watching me work. But he was also a good sport and offered some suggestions along the way. For good measure we had decided to paint the ceiling the same pearl blue as the walls. It looks spectacular but is also plain old hard work to achieve. As we turn and look back each day as we are leaving, the result has been well worth the effort.

Today for the first time the center pot lights were turned on - 11 in all. The work we've done over the last weeks was at last seen in the final light it would live in. The colors and layers of glazing came alive. Tomorrow the last 12 pot lights will be installed and the work lights extinguished and removed for good.

I'm back in my studio now, designing the last of the pieces to be routed for this room. As we do the last of the labor our thoughts are turning towards the rest of the projects that need to be done for this job. The last of the rapid texture wainscoting was glued on the wall today elsewhere in the building. The MultiCam medallions and corner blocks are almost all up. The painter has begun priming and will be going full blast with the paint over the next week or so. It's coming together faster each day.

They say any day you learn something new is a good day. I'd suggest that I have more than my share of good days.

-dan

Getting a handle on the small bits

With EnRoute Software and our MultiCam router I can fashion just about any part I can imagine in a hurry. But the material I like to use 30lb Precision Board isn't overly strong - especially if the part is to be handled. I needed a handle for the submarine door (the white board) and I knew that it would get tugged on regularly. The solution was simple. I cut some 5/8" steel rod and welded up a 'T' shape. Then using my die grinder I hollowed out the inside of each piece .

I test fit everything to make sure it went together properly. The vertical piece protruded out the back of the handle.

Using Coastal Enterprises one part urethane glue PB Bond 240 I coated the piece making sure some dribbled into the cut. This would expand as it cured filling any hollows I had created.

Then I popped it into the clamps overnight. In the morning I used the die grinder once more to clean up the edges and also add a little 'wear' to the piece. This was an old submarine after all.

Once we got onside I drilled a hole in the center of the door and glued on the handle. I can confidently know that no one is going to break this handle when they try to open the door.

Today we'll add the primer and some aged paint to complete this piece. We are thinking of copper rather than the rusty steel but we'll see...

-dan

Another one done!

Our projects tend to be large and often last many weeks or months. The process seems to take a long time sometimes as each piece is designed, crafted painted and assembled. Commonly the pieces are never assembled until we are on the site as they are simply too large to fit together in our shop. Yesterday was due day for the Oyama Estates subdivision project. The owner asked us to hold off delivery and installation until the day of the grand opening so everything would be fresh and new.

The trailer and truck was loaded the night before with all the tools and supplies we would need. Saturday morning we headed out. The day dawned clear and bright. The beautifully wooded site provided the perfect backdrop for the signs we were to install. Phoenix and his crew had finished the rock work last week. We had polished off the tree in the same time period. The landscapers had done their part. Wee would add the finishing touches with the signs.

The theme of the project celebrated the sister city of Mission, B.C. where we were doing the project. Each lot sign had the Japanese symbol for a positive attribute as well as an english translation and the house number. We would be mounting them to the large rocks the owner had placed on each lot. I had to simply drill a hole in the rock and glue in the sign. I had a large generator with us and all the heavy duty tools I needed. What I didn't allow for was the hardness of the rock we were drilling into. The first two concrete bits I used melted down in minutes with only a shallow hole the result. A quick trip to town was necessary to stock up on some new drill bits. Thankfully, only the first rock proved to be that hard and the holes were bored and the signs were mounted in plenty of time.

The bigger signs mounted to the brackets we had built into the 'rock' framework without difficulty. The last sign we had to go in was the unique street sign. Since we only had one hole to drill I used an old fashioned auger to drill the hole. I was thankful we did for as I neared the bottom we hit some type of conduit. I felt it before we did any damage and by simply sliding over the hole we cured the problem without difficulty.

With the last sign in we presented the smiling owner with the bill for the final draw and rushed home to change before we went back for the opening celebrations. Another project was done!

-dan