Going from the gold

The 2016 Sign Challenge to be held at the International Sign Association Expo is coming fast! Peter’s and my entry pieces have been ready since the new year but before we sent them off we had one more piece to build. It’s the trophy that all of the entrants are hoping for.

The design of the prize is meant to reflect the competition itself. The dimensional letters are stacked up inside a crate. The letters will be gold while the welded metal box will be rusted metal. All will be mounted and displayed on a tall pedestal. A few more coats of gold paint are still to come and the metal box still needs more work. The pedestal base has yet to be started. It’s a fun little project.

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Final pics of the Sign Odyssey piece – Sign Challenge

We also took some studio pictures of the Sign Odyssey piece for your enjoyment. I sure am looking forward to seeing fourteen of these crazy creations lined up in a row in Orlando at the ISA show in a few short months!

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Final pics of Peter’s Artistic Android – Sign Challenge piece

We’ve now taken proper pictures of Peter’s Artistic Android. It is an amazing piece and when we take away the background clutter and add proper lighting the piece really comes alive in glorious detail. What is more amazing is that Peter used this piece to learn the ins and outs of EnRoute to create both the routing and plasma cutter. This was also the first time he operated both the MultiCam router and plasma cutter. I shadowed him a little to make sure he was doing things in a logical order but he asked few questions and mostly figured it out on his own. Enjoy!

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Sign Challenge piece done

I had made it my goal to finish my Sign Challenge piece before the New Year. But like all goals the world conspires to keep you from them. I had made a good start early on, bringing the piece very close to finish. Then I got sidetracked with all manners of other projects. Peter, who finished his piece last week (and enjoyed beating me immensely I might add) was egging me on at every opportunity. I knew if I let my piece go into next year by even a day I would never hear the end of it. So on the last afternoon of the year, I applied the final bit of lettering and with Angie’s help we applied the final glaze. A couple minutes past our normal quitting time (and seven and a half hours before the beginning of 2016) I announced the piece DONE! Happy New Year!

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More plasma cutter eye candy

 Peter’s Sign Challenge piece would have been almost impossible to accomplish without the new MultiCam plasma cutter. At the very east it made things ten times faster. The speed of the design in EnRoute and the precision of the cutting made fitting the pieces dead easy.

The plasma cutter also allowed a complexity which wouldn’t have been possible any other way.
The top section of the box is removable and slides up into the box from the bottom. The coin operating mechanism was built in sections to facilitate this.

Other bits done using the plasma cutter include the gauge on the side which was cut from three pieces of steel and then welded into a section of pipe.

Peter’s piece is now finished. He used it as a project to learn EnRoute and the operation of the MultiCam plasma cutter and router. I’d say he’s a quick learner without a doubt. I look forward to many more projects from his creative hand and mind in the future!

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.