Sign Install Finally Done!

We finished painting the last of the rocks on Friday morning, and did a final test fit of all the parts.
 I love the brown y -grey colour Jody got applied to the rocks. I could hardly wait to put the clear on the water.

Once the rocks had dried up enough to mask, I applied the 2 stage automotive urethane clear coat to the water portion. The smooth curves really made the water come to cartoony life. I love the clarity and shine to the clear.

 I was able to finagle a solar powered pathway light from a buddy of mine, and applied it to the top of the marker-buoy. Not very bright, but fit the bill perfectly!
All in all, it only took about 20 minutes to install, and fit like a glove! Not overly excited by the building behind the sign, but I do love our new sign.......................finally!

Now onto the other jobs we're starting!
8)
JO

Getting closer to the finished sign!

I started the day by getting the color and the weathering on the marker buoy finished up!

I do believe that the seagulls are all painted now. I don't think Jody has anything left to do to them.
With the exception of the fish in the one gulls' mouth. The rocks and the 'Lake Scugog' sign are pretty much the only thing left!

I got the text portion of the sign done as well. I didn't want heavy 3d on the text part of the sign. I ended up building it with 1/4" pvc flats, glued and screwed together.

It looks pretty flat in the pics, but I like the "low relief" look, especially with all the hubbub happening above this part. The little white bubbles are a really nice touch as well.

Were so close to being done, but we're going to be forced to shelf it again for the next few, short deadline jobs. Maybe the sign will get installed before our 1 year anniversary in the current shop space!
8)
JO

Back from the Holidays! Woo-Hoo!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday and New Years!
We actually worked through most of the holidays. Anymore than 3 days max, and I start to get shop-sick. It actually becomes almost a craving to make things again!
We have a few jobs already lined up, so I wanted to get to work on our own sign before the craziness started back up. Plus, I'm a little tired of working around all the pieces for the sign, and I don't really want them to get damaged. After all, we did start this sign last May, and try to work on it around other stuff.

I had decided that I wanted a small marker buoy on the left side of the sign, to add a small bit of drama to the scene.

The base was made entirely from white pvc. I had to flatten the back of it a little to fit into the allotted space. I love the idea of it looking like it's about to slide off the edge of the water. I penciled on the contour of the water onto the base, so it would fit cleanly. This way I don't have to cut into the styrofoam hard-coat.

The structure for the rest of it was soldered up from 1/2" copper pipe. Quick and easy! Plus I love the slightly thick tubing look to it. Very toon-ish! I also added brass furniture tacks for the rivets on the base. I soldered pipe caps onto the end of the pipe to give me something to screw into. The pvc and copper pipe are held securely with stainless steel fastners. When I made the water portion of the sign, I had glued 3/4" plywood down the center of the styrofoam, before encapsulating it all in the urethane hardcoat. The hole in the base is for the large galvanized carriage bolt. This bolt runs through the styrofoam and bolts to the plywood trapped in the water. I texture coated the whole thing with a paint-able, rubberized undercoating spray.

I decided I wanted a small HDU sign that will mount to the marker buoy. It made sense that the sign have the name of the lake that our town sits on the edge of. The vectors were then imported into Aspire for all the cool work!

It only took about a minute to build up all the dimension for it in Aspire. A quick woodgrain background, and some dimensional text and off to our Techno cnc it went.


I shot some video of our Techno lc3024 peacefully carving away:


I did a little work to it once it came off the machine by ways of a dremmel tool. Just to give the sides some woodgrain detail. The whole sign will end up being weathered wood.  It's going to look pretty sweet fastened to the little buoy!

Due to the depth constraints of the sign, 2 of the cartoon seagulls will be mounted somewhat sideways. This means that at least 1 foot will be visible. I had machined enough feet for all the gulls, but in the end, only 1 foot on 2 seagulls will actually get used, as you'll never, ever see the other side.
The feet were machined from pvc with the forethought that I would probably need to bend them at some point. I heated them up quickly with a propane torch, and bent them to the shape of the rock. I tack glued them with CA glue, then ran a 3" finishing screw up into the body.

It looks like he's really got a grip on things now! The screw section was filled over with epoxy putty, and Jody quickly sculpted it to shape.

 I drilled out the bottoms of the seagulls for the 5/16" threaded rod. I also carved in a deep groove inside the hole, so when we poured in the urethane resin, it would actually mechanically lock into the body. These birds won't be flying the coop anytime soon!

Jody made some pretty good headway on the painting of the gulls. She base coated them in white, then painted the wings out in a grey color. The head and neck portion was painted with the Rustoleum metallic pearlescent color. These are killer paints! Rustoleum also makes the same paint for Modern Masters. The pearl was just the right amount of shimmer for the head, while still separating it from the body.
Oooh, I'm getting excited now. Soon our sign will be ready to install, even though it's winter :(
Oh well, it'll be summer again at some point!
8)
JO

After awhile, these all look the same!

Still working on the engraving on the brewery stuff. I did have time between each file run to work a little on our seagull sign. I spent most of the day sanding the styrospray coating that was on the water portion. Not an easy task, as each file only takes about 4 min. Sand-stop and change the part on the Techno cnc-load a new one-start the file-sand for 4 min-stop. That was my day today. I did stay a bit longer to get the primer on the rock portions, and get the first coat of blue on the water.

Not a great photo, but you can see where I'm at. I probably wont do any glazing to the water portion, as I want it very Disney-esque. By that, I mean I really like the smooth clean look they have on a lot of their characters. The rocks will get our usual treatment, which should look killer against the super smooth-texture free water portion.

We soon have to start a small production run of custom cruiser bar tables for a large Canadian brewery event, so I guess our sign will sit for a bit longer.  The next couple of weeks are clogging up our Techno cnc so this should be interesting....................
8)
JO

Happy Feet!

Well not the feet so much as I was happy to get them cut. These are the feet for the seagulls. I exported them out from Hexagon and into Aspire. The toolpaths were assigned very quickly, and they cut almost as fast on our Techno cnc.

These were cut from 3/4" pvc. I'll drill them out for the threaded rod legs. The rod will carry straight on through the styro-rock and bolt on from underneath. I don't really want these gulls flying the coop after they're installed.

I'm trying to wrap up the odds and ends for our sign before the next two projects take over the whole shop. This included getting the styro-spray coating on the foam portion. I decided to brush it on, as I didn't want to deal with all the clean-up from spraying. I eventually got a total of 5 coats applied. I reallly like styro-spray, and I think it's a good product. Some people have had issues with it but I think that might be more a case of user error than the product. One important part is to make sure the whole piece is encapsulated. If it isn't, it will likely peel off after a while. Styro-spray is a urethane product, and all urethane's are first and foremost a glue. This is what they were developed for, and anything else is just a great secondary feature. With this in mind, the styrofoam becomes the weak link, no matter how strong the glue is, it's the styrofoam that will let go. If you encapsulate the project, it will perform exactly as promoted.

I'm quite happy! This will sit aside for awhile to harden fully, while we work on the other projects.
The other part of our signage is an oversized number 8. Our unit is #8, but there's no actual number on the back door, and this confuses some of the delivery trucks. I decided that a cool looking number sticking out from the building would certainly make us as easy to find at the back, as we will be in the front.
The seagull stuff is happening at the front, so I want the 8 to match our website design.

This was all drawn and textured in Aspire. I actually double sided machined it, so it will be cool from each side!  It will stick out of the wall by 2 rusty hydraulic looking pistons.
As the styro-spray coating can take awhile between coats, I set the Techno cnc at a slower pace, as I wasn't in a hurry for this number yet.
 We have another meeting in Toronto tomorrow, but I'll definitely be starting the coaster car over the weekend.
8)
JO

Pop ins are always welcome!

Today seemed to become "pop-in" day at the shop. This was a nice change for me. One of the visitors was a friend I met through doing some design work awhile ago. Bryan owns Tools Wood in Thunder Bay, and as he was in Toronto, he decided to swing up with Nick from General Tools. It was a very nice visit, that's for sure.
Between visits though, I got some work done on our theme sign. The styrofoam water got its final shape and sanding, and I started on one of the rocks.

I also was able to machine the lower beaks for all 4 seagulls.
Usually when I 3d model in Hexagon, I build the pieces and stick them where they need to go. Hexagon has no collision detection, which means shapes can pass freely through each other like ghosts. So in order for the lower beak to fit perfectly, I have to boolean the beak out. Basically this trims the geometry out by the piece that overlaps it, just like a vector trim option in Corel Draw, but in 3d. Long story short: I used the top beak, and neck of the seagull to trim the lower beak to fit exactly.
As the lower beak is a small piece already, I didn't want to slice each one and glue them together. This means Cut 3D. I really dig this piece of software. I could do it in Aspire, but Cut 3D makes it so automated, it's sick!

I did pre set-up the file in Hexagon though. I laid all four parts out on the exact same plane, then added a tube down the middle of them all that will act as a tab to help hold them together during machining. Notice that the tube doesn't stick out at the ends. Otherwise Cut3D would think it was part of the model, and want to cut around it, making it difficult to machine.  I find it also helps to quickly draw a cutter the equivalent of what I will actually be using. In this case, a 1/4" ball-nose. This helps insure that the pieces are spaced apart enough to allow for full cutter travel around all the parts. If they weren't spaced apart enough, I would have to re-open Hexagon and adjust the parts, then re-import into Cut 3D.

 The rest of the tabs were interactively added in cut 3d, and very quickly I might add!

 They came out quite well I think. Our Techno cnc made short work of the material. I probably could have done other things while it cut, but I find it mesmerizing to watch it work it's magic.

And on top of that, they fit like a well designed model kit!
I probably won't be able to get to work on this over the weekend, as I have a cartoon hippo to model for a client. The good news is that the hippo already exists, and we have him already, but he's only 3" tall. I am going to photograph him from different angles, and model from the images in Hexagon.
Should be fun!
8)
JO

That's some thick water!

Today I started to get to work on the water for the new sign. The water slab will reside on the top of the existing sign box. This I'm doing from type2 EPS foam. I will hardcoat it with styrospray when it gets its final shape. I was going to sculpt it by hand, as styrofoam carves pretty easy, but the one thing I dislike most about styrofoam is the mess. It gets in your shoes, in every fold of clothing, your pockets, etc. We carved a huge mountain a few years ago out of foam, and it was everywhere, for a very long time. It even found it's way to the house.

I decided that I would use the router to shape this. The dust collection on our Techno is pretty good, and I could do something else while it was working.
The good thing about using our Techno cnc to shape this, is that it will be exactly as I drew it in the computer. There isn't alot of room on the sign box, and I didn't want to run the risk of the dimensional water  impeding on the text portion of the sign.

With the outline laid out, I can be sure that nothing will be in the way of the lettering. The next step was to quickly mass it out in Aspire. I have a few sheets of 3" styro left over from the shark job, so this was immediately enlisted. I had the sheets cut to 4'X4' at the supplier, so the parts will be done in 3 sections, as the sign is 10' long.

In Aspire, I used the create shape tool set to a 90 degree dome for this. I did remember to add 3" to the length of each piece, then radius-ed the corners to be sure that Aspire wouldn't taper the shape down at the join lines. After the shapes were created, I just trimmed the component to the right length. This assures me that the shapes will blend fairly smoothly between each section. I'm not at all concerned that some of the sections look a little wacky at the moment, as I will be blending them after the glue dries.

 The top surface of the water was 3 slabs of the same styrofoam. I did rabbet in 2 channels for 3/4" plywood. The ply was cut to a width of  2" and glued into the rabbet on it's edge. I also drove long screws in from the edge, trapping the plywood and urethane glue. This serves 2 purposes. 1 was to add strength to the slabs, and 2 was to allow it to become a screwing strip to the top of the aluminum sign box.
I also quickly massed up one of the rock sections. This I will sculpt by hand. There's not alot of depth at the top of the sign. The building we are in has block walls that run about 4" past the top of the sign box, then it becomes corrugated steel siding, which sits proud of the blocks by 2". This reduces our depth where the rocks live, so they're getting a little shallow. I will have to work very closely with the seagulls when I start shaping the rock, just to be sure everything works.

So far so good! This has been alot of fun so far! It's pretty cool to be able to work on neat stuff most of the time. Even if it is for us!
8)
JO

The Oxenham Aviary

I had 2 meetings today, one first thing in the morning, and one this afternoon. This left the day in-between to do a little work on our seagulls. I got the bodies and heads glued together, as well as the last slice of the wing cut and fastened on.

While these were setting up, I was able to toolpath the top portion of all 3 beaks. I havent posed the 4th seagull, so I haven't addressed him at all yet.

I could have applied 1 more level of smoothing to the beaks in Hexagon, but I figured that the whole beak would get sanded down because of the joints anyway, so I didn't sweat it too much. I sliced the beak for our 3/4 inch PVC sheet in Aspire, and the pieces lined up perfectly!

 I quickly test fit the beak, and I'm quite happy with it. I've been cnc'ing models for 6 years now, and I always get amazed when the real thing looks exactly like the computer model. I know, I'm a geek!
8)
JO

Back to building

Most of our computer-only jobs are coming to a close (although we are still quoting on new ones) This left today open to get into the shop and start creating again. A few of these projects are for ourselves. There is no signage on our unit, and I want something fun and unique. I spent the last little while thinking about what I wanted. As we are not located in the film district in the city, it would be pointless to advertise 'Film Props' on our new signage. We will still cater very heavily to the entertainment industry, but up here in our town, I will push our themed signage.  I decided that the 20"X120" sign box would house a sign for our themed signage, with our company name being displayed on the office windows instead. After spending a bit of time on the theme for the design, I chose a water-y style version. We are very lucky to be in a town that is nestled along the shores of a small lake, and one of the things that there is no shortage of are seagulls! I had modeled a seagull before for a display, but that character is copyrighted, so it would be pretty shady to use him. I spent a little bit of time on Sunday to remodel a new "Oxenham" version for us.

As with the last seagull, there's no need to model the legs, as they'll be threaded rod as a fastening system.

I cut the head off him, and brought the body into Aspire. The head removal was necessary for 2 reasons. One was to change the rotation angle so they weren't all in the same pose,  and the other reason was so I could machine the face portion of the head straight on.

The bodies and head only took about an hour to rough and finish machine on our Techno cnc.

There will actually be 4 seagulls on our new sign. 3 will be all crammed up on the right side, and there will be a loner on the far left. He will be leaning over the front, looking at the text portion. I don't actually have a finished sketch for the whole sign. I figured that if I was the client, I could skip the approval sketch :)

I'm not going to give away the final design on this sign, as I hope it will be a bit of a surprise to everyone reading, but I will show you the preliminary layout for the text portion.

The text is going to be laminated sintra letters on a sintra back panel. It's certainly going to lend itself to the 'by the lake' feel that I wanted.
8)
JO