Blogs
University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project – Eos II
The University of Minnesota Solar Vehicle Project (UMNSVP) recently completed the 2017 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge using a vehicle they designed and created from start to finish. Coastal Enterprises was honored to donate Precision Board HDU to the team for use...
Mounting HDU Signs – Did You Know?
Did you know that Precision Board HDU is very effective for creating dimensional signs due to its long exterior life and ease of use? Due to its closed-cell structure, high density urethane must be treated differently than wood. Unlike wood, Precision Board has no...
Building a mine car
I find it a great deal of fun to design rather complex designs and then figure out a way to fabricate what I have imagined. We are currently working on a good sized theme project called the Cloud Buster. It is a drop tower ride.
A busy 2 weeks.
After collecting my award for Best Novelty Sign at the EnRoute summit and meeting some super amazing people, it was time to return home and get ready for our first Sign Alchemy class. People started arriving for the class on Wednesday night and we spent some time hanging out at the shop and preparing for the days to come. Everyone arrived Thursday morning eager to get started learning how we do what we do.
Lost and Foundry: Restoring a WWII Era 16″ Lathe
Tom Utley is doing a detailed restoration of a WWII-era South Bend 16" x 60" metal lathe, which is about 9 feet long and weighs 2,700 pounds fully loaded. It was originally delivered to the US Army in June of 1943 with the Crossed Cannons logo of the Army Ordnance...
Tank Details
The wind up key mount was the first accessory relief to be created for the tank. I started with a flat relief 0.2″ tall. The rivets were the next modification by using the dome tool.
Building the tank turret
The next part of the tank we are building is the main turret. It is pretty simple but it uses tools in ways not often done. The turret is built in two pieces – an upper and a lower half. The first step is the create a relief using the bevel tool, but we’ll do it with a twist. That is to use the limit to height tool which effectively flattens the top with a nice bevel around the edge.
Why I chose a MultiCam CNC Router
When I was in Salt Lake City at the EnRoute Summit I was asked to tell the story of how and why I chose a MultiCam CNC router. This is a video of that story…
Building a tank – part one
I find it a lot of fun to build rather complex files in EnRoute. They are both challenging and a great way to learn the functions of the software. Once mastered the functions of ADD, SUBTRACT, MERGE HIGHEST, MERGE LOWEST and REPLACE allows us to build some pretty interesting shapes to create just about anything we can imagine.