More signs at Skallywag Bay

There were a whole lot of signs which we did for Skallywag Bay in Trinidad and I'e been itching to get them installed for quite some time. During my last visit to the site we got almost all of the larger pieces placed around the site. We did it using a 60' zoom boom which is a very handy machine. I have my forklift licence for our little machine at the shop but the larger machine was a whole new experience! The key is to go slow and easy. Every move is amplified when the boom is fully extended and to reach these pieces we did just that most of the time.

The sign posts will have heavy rope work installed at a later point by someone who knows how to braid the rope and tie the proper knots.

The soil will be put into the planters around the base of the signs and the greenery will soften the look and make the signs blend better into the picture.

One Track Mine Co - Part two

I routed three copies of the little One Track Mining Co. vehicle chassis. I'll make three different models as per the original sketches. The pieces were routed from some scraps of 1.5" 30 lb Precision Board. Since I uses a tapered 1/8" bit the track shoes routed just as I imagined, slightly thinner at the edges. I had routed the pieces with a 80% overlap which provided a smooth surface. I left a thin onion skin layer against the spoil board so the small pieces stayed put on the vacuum spoil board on the router.

Here's the same there pieces pulled apart. I simply blew the dust off the pieces with an air hose before I glued them up using a five minute epoxy and five clamps.

Once the epoxy set up I used the air powered die grinder to even out the edges. The corners and back of the hood were rounded to match the radiator cover. I'll cut and glue a little more material to the base to widen it before I start the sculpture process. 

Before I started the sculpt I did up a new rendering of the wheelbarrow vehicle based on the little scale model as the engine housing/hood wasn't in my first renders. I'll do my sculpt with this new drawing as a reference. The hardest part of this build is that it will have to wait two weeks before I do it as I head out of town bright and early tomorrow morning. :) Stay tuned...

One Track Mine Co. - part one

The three little One Track Mine Co. machines are so much fun I decided to build them first as some sample models. As I designed the routing reliefs I made some modifications to make them better. I'm sure more modifications will follow as we build the pieces full size as well.

I built the vector files completely in EnRoute. The track files are a lot like the tank files we built a little while ago but these sport a little more detail. The biggest change from the concept sketch was the addition of a motor hood. I built it in three sections (two sides and a front)

I started with the track backing plate. This was created as a relief 0.2" thick. The center was then dropped by half that to effectively create the chain links between the treads.

The cleat sprockets were next and were created as separate reliefs 0.3" tall.  I then selected the track pieces and combined them with the track shape. I could do this because they protruded outside of the track shape. The sprocket pieces were MERGED HIGHEST with the track back.

The center springs were created by modifying the track background relief.

The wheels were next and were created as separate reliefs. These were then MERGED HIGHEST with the track back.

Next the wheels were dished down by modifying the base relief using the subtract and dome tool.

And the wheel lugs were then added by modifying the base relief and using the ADD TO and dome tool.

The top portion of the track support was created as a separate relief and then merged highest with the track relief.

Last up for the track reliefs were the cleats. These were created as separate reliefs that were one inch tall. Since they were outside but overlapped the base relief I selected the cleats and the base relief and then used the combine tool to make them one relief.

The floor and hood of the little tractor was created as a separate flat relief. that was 1.2" tall. The hood vent slots were then dropped into this relief using the subtract tool. This new piece and the track relief were then selected and combined into one relief.

The grill of the tractor was next. I first created a zero height relief.

I then used the chamfer tool to round off the front edges uniformly all the way around.

The grill and started holes were then created using the subtract tool.

I then created a zero height relief and used the merged highest command to effectively clip the bottom off the grill. I then used the slice tool to take off the zero height portion of the relief.

I then modified the track relief by adding the little circle to the base bracket. This will be used to mount all of the accessories to the tractor.

The last step was to create a dirt base for the tractor This was done as a simple flat relief which was 1.5" tall. This new separate relief and the tractor relief were selected and combined to form one relief.

The track relief was duplicated and flipped so I could glue it to the back of the original to create the tractor. The grill will be glued to the end of the motor housing.  The piece was now ready to be tool pathed and sent off tp the MultiCam. It will be routed from a piece of 1.5: 30 lb Precision Board. Stay tuned for the next steps...

Piece by pieceS

It is pure magic as we install the scores of features at Skallywag Bay in Trinidad. It's been four years since we started building the fourteen shipping containers full of features. We packed the last of them into the containers more than two years ago. Now at last it is time to install everything. Today was the day to assemble two of the attraction signs. Being too tall to fit out of the shop door we built and shipped them in sections. Today was the first time we've seen them put together. They are every bit as we imagined they would be and will look even better when he gardens are planted!

Every piece lifted beautifully which was amazing as we could only estimate where the lift points needed to be as we fabricated the pieces. Everything fit together perfectly as well... a testament to our team's engineering and fabrication skills.

Some of the pieces we fabricated were shipped as parts for final assemblies. These logo skull brackets were plasma cut from 1/2" thick steel plate for each side of the posts in the train station and entrance building.They looked great welded into place!

Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow!

One track mine concepts...

Last month I did a step by step of building a little display tank. It was a fun little project!  Now i looks like we may just get to build a series of tracked features which use some of those ideas.

A client has asked us to come up with some ideas for a mining theme adventure golf. Our first concept was pretty conventional, being a narrow gauge mining railroad car. We just built one a few weeks ago so the concept came pretty quick.  But as I finished the concept we knew we could get a whole lot more creative. After some discussion we came up with a ring machine, protruding from the ground. Golfers would golf into the broken chute from an upper level. The ball would go down chute and then around he corkscrew of the boring machine before dropping onto the golfing green.

Once we got going in a creative (and somewhat silly) direction the ideas came much faster. The mining car became a power wheelbarrow, with a single tractor tread. The brand name of he manufacturer was dubbed 'ONE TRACK MINE Co.' - just for fun. 

The crawler wheelbarrow immediately spawned more ideas with the mono-track, each more creative and ridiculous than the last. First up was a small mining bulldozer.

The last machine in this series was the drilling machine.

The ideas are so much fun I may just decide to do up some study models. If so I'll post step by steps here. At the very least here will be plenty of CNC plasma cut files to make. Stay tuned...