Texture and Gadgets

We’ve been busy but have still found some time to work a little every day on our Mechanical Fish project. While Brian is working the mechanics of the tank I’ve been adding fun little elements to the design and creating some cool textures and “mechanical” parts.

Here is the control panel – We’ll be adding switched and a panic button soon. But it gives you an idea. Working lamp? What kind of sign is this!!!!!

ControlPanel

So Brian has set our mechanical fish in the tank. we have some cool propellers on the back and the LED’s are lighting up the cabin and the button eye. No small task as this fish is submersed in water.  Next step is to install the pistons to open the door!

FishInTank

I had to get KDF somewhere on this sign! We didn’t want it too obvious so in a fun way we’ve placed it on the top of the periscope box.

Top

We’ve finished the back of the box, all out of 15lb Precision Board HDU.  The face was cut out of 30lb.

Box

The front took a lot more time. All 30lb Precision Board HDU then I used Magic Sculpt for the organic material in the corners.

Front

More to come….

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Completing the Structure – Mechanical Fish Project

All the welding is done. The leveling feet are on and the steel structure is now complete and painted. All I have to do is cut the acrylic tray for the top tank and we are done with stage 1!

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For the base of the top tank we used 2″ acrylic – overkill maybe – really cool custom acrylic fish tank tray – definitely!

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I designed the cut in Enroute Pro then sent it down to the Multicam to do all the work.  We screwed some MDF to the table to keep this block in place. 1/2 an hour later – a perfect cut came off the table!

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Perfect fit!photoft4

A quick leveling and we are looking good. Onto the next stage!

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

The Mechanical Fish Sign Competition Project – Base

“After Hours” has a new meaning here at KDF.  It’s when we get to have fun and really get creative.  It is amazing how much work you can get done when the phone isn’t ringing! Our mechanical fish project is moving along nicely. We’ve just completed the panels for the base which will sit atop a slab of stone. We started by routing the panels from 1.5″ 30# Precision Board on the Multicam 3000.

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The Mechanical Fish Sign Competition Project – Base

The Competition is On – A Fish Tale

Our mentor from the North, Dan Sawatsky, has been posting a super cool project that he has been working on at http://imaginationcorporation.com/journal/ .  We saw that he was involved in a friendly competition with some other superstar sign makers and we wanted in. The rules of the competition – create a sign for the “The Institute for the Study of Mechanical Marine Life”.  The only requirement is that the sign has the text on it and that it includes a mechanical fish of some sort. We have until September 2nd to make this a good one – we’ll have to do the work at night as we are extremely busy – but it will be a fun! Game on! So Brian and I did a little brainstorming.

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The Competition is On – A Fish Tale