Triangle Contracting - Part 3

The files for the excavator sign were routed in three stages. First Dan cut the reliefs using a 3/8" ball nose bit to rough out the shapes. A final pass was done with a 1/8" bit and an 80% overlap. Then he did a second cut file using a 3/8" milling tool to cut the rest of the pieces out.

The pile of pieces resembled a 3D jigsaw puzzle but it won't take long to sort the out.

First, Dan welded up some 3" square tubing which would form the sign’s stand. The top of the 'T' would be glued into the sign for strength! Dan used Coastal Enterprises PB Bond-240 glue to do the task. He also used some coarse threaded screws instead of clamps to hold everything secure while things cured.

Then Dan started in on the pieces of the excavator. He hollowed out both sides of the excavator’s arms to fit in a piece of 3/8" steel — which he had bent to shape. Once he had two sides of the arms glued, Dan added the other layers.

As usual he couldn't resist mocking it up to see how it would look...

This morning everything was good and dry. Dan cleaned up the glue lines with his die grinder and started in on the assembly. The sides of the 'gravel pile' were cut into shape with the die grinder. Dan wanted the excavator to really sit precariously on the top and to give it a cartoon flare he tipped the tracks outward at a jaunty angle, then drilled and inserted some 1/4" steel rods to hold them in place. It was all glued together with some quick drying epoxy.

Next, Dan cut a piece of 1" thick Precision Board HDU on the bandsaw and used belt sander to finalize the angle cuts he needed. Then he glued it all up. When the epoxy had set Dan broke out his big 5/8" drill and drilled a hole through the track frame and into the sign base. A nine inch long by 5/8" steel rod was glued in and then a similar hole was drilled into the tractor body. He will hide the rod with some small rocks when he starts the sculpture. The long steel rod will make the sign much stronger — high density urethane (HDU) does not have a lot of structural strength.

Dan fitted the excavator’s body on top for a quick picture but he won't glue it until the painting is done.

Once the last of the pieces for the excavator sign are off the CNC router they can be fastened to the base.

The hydraulic cylinders and hoses have yet to be fashioned and the pile of gravel will yet get some detail but the sign is coming along nicely. It's hand work from here on in.

Triangle Contracting - Part 2

Even what, at first glance, seems like a complex sign element is easily broken down into simple shapes that can be routed and then glued together. Before Dan started building the reliefs he drew a simple sketch of the top view of the excavator. It showed how the excavator would be created as vertical slices (layers of HDU).

Dan separated the vector file he created last time into the elements that will form each layer when I routes it from 1" thick 30 lbs. Precision Board HDU. The sign faces with the lettering would be routed from 1.5" thick HDU.

First up was the tracks. The elements were all created separately on a 1/4” thick background. The inside mechanical bits were between 1/2" - 3/4" thick. The cleats of the tracks were 1" thick reliefs. Then Dan merged them together on a zero thickness background. (Routing these tracks with a tapered 1/8" bit will created a wonderful effect.) Then Dan copied the file and flipped it for the back side. Next he created a rectangular block and merged it to the back side of the track. This will be used to glue things together after it is routed.

The cab was built as two pieces which will be glued up back to back. Only the windows and door handle were recessed. The third piece in this section is for the motor cover on the opposite side of the cab.

The boom proved to be a relatively simple piece to execute. Simple reliefs of various depths were created in EnRoute and then merged onto a zero height relief. The file was then copied and flipped for the back side of the boom. The pieces will be glued up with a piece of steel laminated into the middle. The bucket will be made up of four layers of 1" thick Precision Board HDU.

The background of the sign using a texture bitmaps called 'splotches’ from our Texture Magic: Classic Collection. The lettering was beveled and raised from the outlines which surround them. These outlines were also raised slightly from the background to make them easier to paint. Once Dan had all the pieces at the right height he merged everything together, then created a second copy for the back side of the sign.

For the middle of the sign we will laminate five 1" thick pieces of Precision Board HDU. The centre three laminations needed to be hollowed out to accommodate the welded steel frame which will hold the sign. Using Enroute’s precision input centre Dan created the rectangles to form a 3" wide 'T' shaped hole in the boards. This was centred and then using the jigsaw tool he pulled out the vector he would use to cut the shapes.

With all the files done, is was time to nest the pieces and then tool path them for our CNC router. The files that appear yellow are reliefs which will be carved using a 3/8" ball nose bit to rough them and a 1/8" bit to do the final pass. The rest of the files are simple offset cuts, done as a separate pass.

The sign faces were nested in a separate file and tool-pathed for 1.5" stock. Next, Dan will be starting to piece together the excavator for gluing up.

Triangle Contracting - Part 1

Dan designed this sign featuring an excavator perched on top of a pile of dirt.

He took a picture of the rough sketch and imported the picture into Photoshop to do a more finished rendering.

Using the vector tools in EnRoute, Dan blocked out the excavator’s shapes — Scale isn’t critical at this point and while there are still lots of missing pieces it is starting to look like a convincing excavator already.

Next he edited and adjusted each piece of the rough vector sketch. Since the final sign would feature a cartoonized tractor he exaggerated some pieces to suit. The hydraulic cylinders and hoses will be added when he assembles the routed pieces.

The triangle was constructed by using the jigsaw tool in EnRoute to create a shape inside three intersecting lines. He used the chamfer tool to round the corners of the triangle.

Dan added the text next. He used a copy of the triangle (re-sized) under the 'O' in Co.

Open reflection, Dan decided that the 'TRI-ANGLE' needed to be bold. Once he was happy with the spacing of the lettering he added outlines around the triangle and lettering using the outline tool. A rectangle was drawn around 'CONTRACTING' and the ends stretched out using the vector adjustment tool.

Then Dan pulled the sign face vectors over to the tractor vectors and resized them to suit.

In our next instalment Dan will start creating the reliefs, adding and subtracting to get the shapes he needs.