Once the pieces had all been routed it was time to the glue up. We used the routed slots in the center of the sign as a jig to tack up the steel frames, then pulled them out and did the final welding. Some steel eye bolts were also welded to the top of the frame. A 5/8″ steel bar was welded to the post side of the sign as well. The sign was hung from the matching eye bolts on the structural steel post
One of the signs that I have been looking forward to building is the one for the Railroad. It features Pike, the Gruffle engineer in the cab of his engine. The sign will be about 44″ tall nd will hang from a mast similar to the other signs. I started with a quick hand trace of the main sign elements
We are now three months (of eleven) into the Skallywag Bay Adventure Park project. The shop is full of projects on the go and out in the parking lot there are enough finished pieces to fill three forty foot shipping containers with enough pieces still left to begin loading two more containers. Forty-one pieces are finished.
Cookie’s tool set was a whole lot of fun to create. Since the last post on the project we’ve hand brushed three coats of base colors on (all acrylic house paints). Then the glazes went on the wood, starting with the lightest and working towards the darkest. After the piece is covered the glaze is gently wiped off leaving excess in the crevices and deeper portions of the texture.
The three pieces of the Pieces of 8 sign that were routed from 30lb Precision Board were laminated over a welded steel frame sandwiching the structure inside. The two protruding steel legs were then welded to the steel structure of the post. Once the glue had set (overnight) I used our air powered die grinder to quickly add some woodgrain texture to the sides of the sign. I then welded the sculpture of Tupper in the crow’s nest to the top
Creating files in EnRoute and routing them on the MultiCam is a huge timesaver. By using bitmaps I can create wonderful textures to add dimension to our projects. But the fact is that after the parts are machines we are only about half way to finish on most of our dimensional projects. Cookie’s utensil rack is a good example
We use many creative ways to hang our signs and projects. If it’s heavy we’ll resort to steel brackets or lag bolting it to a structure. But sometimes the sign isn’t too large or heavy. In those cases we often use what we refer to as a french cleat
With a large crew to keep busy and big projects in planning it’s not too often I get to spend time with a paint brush in my hand these days. But Cookie has been a pet project from design, sculpt, creating the routing file and through the paint process. Other members of the crew did work on the project a little but the bulk of it has been mine. I decided that I would personally finish the paint job on the lettering portion as well as the the highlights and touchups on.
We are now beginning to assemble and finish the signs for the Trinidad project, starting with Cookie’s Galley sign. In the last few days we’ve done the finishing and laid on the base coats of paint. We use premium exterior house paint for all of our finishes and glazes with good results. Today it was time for the first glaze to bring out the woodgrain textures