There’s much more to our signs than just a pretty face. Precision Board HDU and sculpting epoxy are awesome materials, but they don’t offer much structural strength. Our signs often need to travel thousands of miles and need to be handled with cranes. They also need to withstand decades of wind and weather. That means we have to design, fabricate and embed structural steel inside the fancy features we create. This requires careful planning. In the case of the little tractor we are creating for Downey’s Farm, it means we will have to assemble it in stages, finishing it as we go, as many parts will not be accessible after they are all together. Today’s task was to weld the steel frame and glue up the first three layers around it. Tomorrow we’ll weld it to a 1/4” thick base plate and then begin the first of the sculpting and painting. Stay tuned…