Speaking from Experience: Dayna's tree

WELCOME!

It is hard to believe that it was almost ten years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one of these machines - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Along with the CNC router I discovered the wonderful material called Precision Board and the glues, primers and other companion products they offer. Since then we have gone through many tons of the material using it in most signs and projects we tackle. This journal will chronicle our many adventures both past, present and future. I'll talk from the perspective of someone who pushes these products to the creative limit on a daily basis. I'll be adding to the stories two or three times each week. -dan

Monday, July 31, 2017

Dayna's tree

We received a request for a very special sign recently. A family had lost their four year old daughter to cancer and wanted a sign for a park they were dedicating to Dayna. We came up with the idea of a tree. Dayna loved ladybugs and so four ladybugs will be hiding on the tree for other children to find. A small fairy door will be tucked between the roots.

With the design approved we started in on the build. As with many of our projects there will be a variety of materials used. The base is cut from a sheet of half inch thick steel. The file was designed in EnRoute and the MultiCam CNC Plasma made short work of this part of the project.

Then it was time for some sturdy structural steel. The tree frame will get a sturdy lifting point to handle the loading and placing on site. It has to be plenty strong as the tree will travel about two thousand miles by truck.

Once the basic structural frame was donee started welding up the pencil rod armature and tying on the galvanized lath. The double sided sign was designed in EnRoute a d routed on our MultiCam from three layers of 30 lb Precision Board. The steel structure is embedded in the centre layer of the sign. Once I had located the sign we can now continue building the top portion of the tree armature.

Today I designed the cutting files (in EnRoute) for the steel leaves. I then formed them and welded in half in steel rods for the stems. Once we finish grinding them we will send them off to the powder coaters.