Speaking from Experience: Strong bones

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

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Strong bones

The pieces we are building for Motiongate in Dubai are the most engineered we have ever done. We created the first drawings of the incredibly strong frameworks that go inside the features. The target feature frame is a giant triangle truss that measures six feet wide by thirty feet long and three feet high. Our engineer then reviews our drawings, calculates the proposed forces and adds what he feels necessary. Our client's engineers then reviews these drawings, before they are sent on to the client in Dubai. They send their notes back to our client and then on to us and our engineer for final changes. After the lengthy process is done we can at last begin the build.

All of the drawings were created in EnRoute full size. This ensured accuracy and also allowed us to create the cutting files for the plasma cutter at the same time. We exported the drawings as DWG files so the engineers could work on the plans in AutoCad. We gave our MultiCam plasma cutter a good workout on the heavy plate steel. Today we finished the true framework for the base.

Then it was time at last to begin the fun stuff. We prefabbed the head and tail of the Viking shipwreck and then placed them with the forklift before welding them firmly in place. This thing is pretty massive and will get a lot bigger yet as we add the rockwork and other bits of the ship around these first two elements.