The next sign we are routing is the is for the wagon wheel attraction. A gopher will be perched on top of an old wagon wheel, eyes wide, mouth agape as he stares up at the giant wheel looming overhead. We’ll make the bulk of the sign on the MultiCam from 30 lb Precision Board. It will be layered and have a sturdy welded steel frame inside, as always
The old time logo was drawn in Illustrator and then imported into EnRoute . It was a bit rough, especially on the droll but I planned to redraw that portion in any case. The first order of business was to add a border around the letters. This was done using the outline tool. A second, much wider outline was added to form part of the outline of the sign.
I was in Florida last week with my client for a business conference and trade show. We gathered ideas at the trade show and it was well worth the effort. But the time I enjoyed most was riding back and forth beside him on the plane. During that time no phones rang, there was no internet. It was a chance to get to know him better and also discus at length the project we were working on.
This past week I was gone from my studio for four days while on a quick business trip to Florida. I’m almost over the jet lag now and back at my desk once more. We are currently working our way through the signs for the theme park. Today’s task was the Wave Swinger sign
The main sign at the Cultus Lake Adventure Park is anything but ordinary. The sign lettering is routed from Precision Board and assembled with a sturdy frame as are many of our projects. But the lettering is only a teeny part of the sign.
On the sign I last posted I forgot to take pictures of the assembly process, but luckily there was a second identical sign. Since I designed the signs to slip into the framework of the lighthouse sign they needed four legs to protrude out of the back. The signs are routed in three layers with the center one inch thick layer having slots in to to accommodate the framework.
The sign lettering was routed in three pieces… the face, routed from 2″ thick 30 lb Precision Board, the middle (which houses the structure) routed from 1″ thick material, and the back which is routed from 3/4″ thick material. The sign face was routed in two passes, the first as a rough pass with a 3/8″ ball nose bit. The final pass was using a 1/8″ ball nose
When I welded up the frame for the lighthouse mountain and sign I welded in four inch and a half square tubes that stood out from the finished sign face. These were to fasten the lettering to when we routed it from Precision Board. The lettering vectors looked like this. I combined them to form the outline of the sign.
The Bucky’s Bumper Boat sign was finished the day before yesterday and with the room needed in the shop it was time for the install. We carefully loaded it in the trailer and hauled it up to the work site. Our client had all the big equipment we needed to the tricky install. All we had to do was unload it and hook it to the zoom boom. The skilled operator shifted the machine into four wheel drive and low range to begin the install.