Rise of the Machines

I’ve been obsessed with robots for the past few months. Researching and coming up with processes in our shop that I can one day have a robot perform… Yes everyone thinks I’m nuts. I’ve even been playing around with our home vacuum cleaner robot in hopes of “taking control” of it. Not sure of what it will do just yet but I’m getting there.

So in honor of my obsession I started a little side project of creating a “robots” sign.

I started sketching an idea and got so excited about it I ran to the computer and began drawing it up in Enroute Pro. I decided to keep it very simple – i’ll have the word “robots” sitting atop a rover robot with two robotic arms hovering above the letters – one will be placing a letter into position. I also want to incorporate some type of movement in this sign so I’m experimenting with a motion detector and a motor to simulate robotic movement. Ok not so simple. But this will be fun and it’s my obsession – so here we go.

I’ve cut the letters out of 15# Precision Board HDU

Now its time to cut out the robots that will stand behind the letters. I’m cutting them out of 30lb Precision Board HDU on the MultiCAM 3000. These guys will be large and heavy duty!

Once cut I’ll glue them together with Coastal’s PB Bond-240 HDU adhesive. I’ve also inserted a cable which will hold up one of the letters. Once dry I’ll sculpt on some

I’m doing the back panel out of some scrap MDF and I’ll paint to look like rusted steel. I’m getting an idea of the layout. I think I want it a little more robust.

I’ll get everything primed while I’m figuring out the assembly. I’m using Coastals FSC-88 Primer – 2 Coats. It works great on the MDF as well.

After the priming is done its on to the painting. I’ve painted the backer with a faux iron paint from Sophisticated Finishes which I can then rust out. It’s such a simple process and the results are amazing.

While the second coat is still tacky I spray on the Green Petina Solution and wait. The finish rusts before your eyes.

I’m using the Modern Masters Silver as the base coat for my letters. With a glaze over the top.

Pre-assembly is complete. Now we are going to hang it and do some more painting and LED work.

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Bailey’s Project: Day 7 – part 1

OK Its Friday – we are installing on Sunday – St. Patrick’s Day is Monday. Hmm. Pressure is on!!!!!!

Brian has been in the paint shop for days – not sure if he’s seen daylight. But it’s payin’ off! After all the priming Brian started mixing the paints and spraying. Time is running out but we’re almost there. We have a crew out today installing the bracket on the building so Sunday we can focus on transporting and hanging this 200lb baby.

The colors are amazing and the finish is incredible. We 3D cut the face of the ribbons and left the accent lines of the font on the ribbon. This way it would create a dramatic depth when the letters get placed in. Brian hand painted the gold details and the filigree.

The main body of the sign is painted and its time to attach the front face pieces and the grill.

The LED’s are inserted and it comes alive!

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Captain America

This was a nice little challenge. We were hired to make a sign for the new Captain America film which will hang in the Disney Store in Times Square. The sign has to be lightweight, clean and look high end. The graphics supplied were really cool so we have a lot of work to do to match it.

I started with designing the “Captain America” letters. I thought it would look great to do it in two parts to match the logo – the outside letter will be cut out of 1″ 15lb Precision Board HDU and painted silver and the inside beveled plate will be cut out of 1/4″ PVC and we’ll print the blue face and highlights to it on our Oce’ 350XT Flatbed Printer.

Stage 1 Complete!

Now we have to come up with the sign backer. Again it needs to be lightweight and look awesome – something Captain America… ish.

So we decided to make it out of 2″ Black Gator. At this thickness we’ll be able to drill down the center of the material and insert threaded rod to hang it. Here you can see Greg drilling the holes for the threaded rod. Once we have our rod in place we’ll wrap the sign with black brushed metal vinyl. Greg made up some nice low profile hangers to finish it off.

Here Rad and I are wrapping the panel with our Avery black brushed metal cast wrap material.

Stage 2 Complete! Great job Rad and Greg.

Now we’ll finish up the other dimensional letters and get them over to Brian to paint – he’s going to do some nice airbrushing on our letters so I can’t wait to see them. In the meantime we have to complete the face of our sign. we are going to finish it off with a sheet of 1/16″ Frosted Acrylic with silver cast vinyl backer to give it a real sleek look. we are going to print some of the text directly to this panel then double sided adhesive mount it to our wrapped gator board.

All the elements are complete – it’s time to glue it all together. Mark, Rad and Eddie jump on the mounting and gluing. We are almost there.

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Han Solo Continued…

The Control Panels are all cut. We’ll do some handy work on these later with LEDs and Acrylic faces.

Now its time to complete the sculpting of Hans clothing. I’m using Magic Sculpt. This material is great – its a two part sculpting compound that is really easy to work with and hardens to steel! If you look closely I’m using my Iphone case as a reference for the detail.

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Disney’s Frozen Project – Times Square Disney Store

Who wouldn’t love working on a Disney project? This was a fun project with characters, castles and great Disney graphics. We just completed our work, delivered to our client they added their magic and it looks fantastic! If you are in Times Square NYC this holiday season check it out.

We started out by vectorizing the clients sketch of a giant snow arch and castle with the “Frozen” logo carved into it. In Enroute Pro we gave the outline shape and texture and designed the accurate dimensions to fit on the store fixtures.Now this arch is about 16′ Wide so we cant cut it all at once. I’ll break up the file and start cutting the pieces.

So to keep the weight down we chose to make the arch out of blue insulation foam. We started by gluing 4′x8′ sheets of 2″ foam together. Our arch will end up 8″ thick. Once glued we are ready to cut.

Once the panels are cut – we cut out a channel on the back to set the PVC piping wich will hold the pieces together. The PVC is set in place and the safety cables are installed and crimped.

The adhesive is applied and the sides are assembled.

Now we’re ready to tackle the bases! These need to be large solid pieces of foam so we cut them in discs that will sit on top of each other then Brian will come in with a sawzall to rough sculpt it. Here you can see Eddie assembling the discs and gluing in place.