Dan Sawatzky’s Blog

Signing off

Back in March of 2010 I posted the very first entry to this blog. At that point I had been using Precision Board and a CNC router about four years and was still very much at the beginning of a learning adventure that continues to this day. I know that learning adventure will never end. Here’s that first post. ________________________________________________________________ In this journal it is my hope that I will be able to share with you the many ways we use Precision Board high density urethane and other products from Coastal Enterprises in our projects

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Robot table sculpt done

On the last day of 2017 I spent a little more time in the shop finishing up the sculpt of the Coastal Enterprises’ robot table. This included the robot’s head, arms and hands. The fingers were sculpted in such a fashion as to hide the structure of the table top.  With the integral welded steel frame inside the top and through the hands and arms this thing is plenty strong! As I was rummaging through the electrical parts drawer yesterday I came across a spare switch which I decided to include on the back of the robot. I used a couple of chain links to build a guard on each side.

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Topped out

Today it was time for some more router work on the MultiCam. The upper arms were first and routed from two pieces of 1″ thick 30 lb Precision Board. I routed a slot into them to fit around the 1″ X 2″structural steel.

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Details – just for fun

I managed a couple of hours in the shop this afternoon. In that time I finished the bottom of the back of the robot. As an extra little feature I added a window hatch which some small details in side using short lengths of wire, a spare air pressure gauge and some bits of hose. The small viewing window fogged up as the fresh paint inside dried but it should clear up overnight

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Building the body

I’ve stated many times the we use 30 lb Precision Board exclusively in our shop. This is true when it pertains to CNC routing… but when we are hand sculpting high density urethane that will be coated with sculpting epoxy we sometimes use four pound foam. It is so soft I can practically carve it with my hands

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A fun little table

As per usual the shop is quiet between Christmas and the New Year. The crew is taking some deserved time off to be with their families. With Christmas falling on a Monday it meant we had a couple of days to do our final shopping and ready the house for two days of company. Then it was time to kick back and enjoy family and lots of good eating

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Sign Challenge 2018 progress

I jumped into the building of my 2018 Sign Invitational piece as soon as I returned from Las Vegas nine months ago. The theme for the 2018 invitational is ‘MARVELOUS MACHINE’  I posted pictures of my progress perviously on the blog  here . The last post was July 1. Since then we’ve been slammed with lots of creative projects in the shop as well as numerous business trips to Trinidad, Orlando, Salt Lake City, Atlantic City and more

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