Ready for blast off!

Six years ago, when I first turned on our CNC machine, I was absolutely fascinated to watch it create an idea that had previously only lived in my head. It was pure magic! Even after six years and countless projects it has never lost that wonder. 

This week we hosted a three day gathering of some brilliant people in our shop, leaders in the CNC routing industry. Jeff Hartman, from Colorado, one the creators of EnRoute Software was joined by Shawn Kirsch, from Texas, head of project development at MultiCam routers, Craig Sior, from Idaho, motion control engineer at MultiCam, and Mark Hurt, from Hawaii, artist and machine operator extraordinaire and myself. Our goal was to put the first of the projects on our new four axis router, but also to discuss and chart the creative directions we were to head in the future years. The task ahead is huge, to develop software and figure out new applications for this relatively new technology. This will allow me as an artist to dream up new projects that will continually push the envelope of the machine capabilitiy.

We have now finished two of the three days of meetings. The time has flown by as so many possibilities are discussed. One idea leads to the next and the next. We'll start small, but our vision for the future is huge. Yesterday, we put the first piece onto the new machine, nothing particularly fascinating nor earth shattering. It was an oversized Coke bottle. But as the machine worked, slowly revealing the bottle shape inside a block of Precision Board, everyone present was excited for the future was being revealed before us. We could see what was possible down the road as each piece leapfrogs over the previous.

Where we will go in the next years I have no idea. But what I do know is that it will be a FUN ride!

-grampa dan

First project

I often get asked just how I got into this business. The answer is I just did. I've been into art for longer than I could remember - as long as I could hold a crayon. It has been my passion since then. As a young kid and right though my teens and to this day I remember spending a great deal of time drawing. My mom encouraged it by keeping me supplied with the endles materials I needed. As I grew up my dad let me help with building projects around the yard. With his example I learned little was not possible although it often required a great deal of effort and sweat. Both of these things would influence me for the rest of my life. I believe my passion was sparked way back then.

Through the years my passion was focused and directed by many experiences and opportunities along the way. These happened by both chance and deliberate acts on my part. My first paying jobs painting seasonal Christmas windows at age 14 were inspired by my older brother Garry winning $15.00 in a contest for painting a window. A light went on in my head when I realized people would actually pay for this kind of thing. I made an incredible $700 that first year in a couple of weeks - a fortune in those days - especially to a young kid still not old enough to drive.

Through the years I constantly learned new thngs and took on new opportunities, often stretching myself to the very limits of what was possible (for me) at the time. While there were some failures along the way, each success in turn brought new opportunities which forced me to once again grow to the challenge at hand. It has been an wonderful journey.

While I started very young, I believe it is never too late to chace one's dreams. I often tell my students that the only thing that separates me from them is the decades of experience I've wracked up along the way. The secret to success is mostly about wearing out many pairs of shoes as we make our journey.

In short, if you want to get somewhere, it is time to start walking.

-grampa dan

Unlimited options

So many sign makers seem to get stuck on a very tight definition of what a sign is. In the process they leave a lot of creative opportunities undone. A sign in our shop is defined as anything that draws attention to our customer's business, product or service. That can be a lot of things. And in our book the more creative the better.

At the Fox & Hounds Pub there is a cooler door behind the bar. It is a pretty plain door. Too plain in fact. The door goes to the giant walk-in cooler that stores the beer at the perfect temperature. The white metal door stood out like a sore thimb - especially with all the work we did in the area and the awesome woodwork done by others. The owner asked us to come up with a solution. No problem.

I've long wanted to route some creative door skins with our CNC router. It is an easy way to add character to a door. This was the perfect opportunity.

I took careful measurements of the door - tricky stuff with the large bulky hinges, handle and latches already on the door. We couldn't move them, so we had to work around them. Because the door is high traffic and with bulky cases of beer we decided to stay away from the edges about 3". This would save a lot of potential bumps and bruises down the road. Below is the concept for the door. Don't mind the yellow color as it is the default color of the computer program the file was created in. We'll be painting the routed high density urethane we use to match the rest of the woodwork in the pub.

I created a routing file with some cool woodgrain and topped it off with what will be a faux hammered copper plaque on the top. It will read CELLAR - advertising what is inside in a subtle fashion. With the embossed copper ceiling and faux copper pipe and tap work above the door it should look pretty cool.  Some square headed rivets (to match what is on the doors elsewhere in the pub) finish things off nicely. The unsitely, formerly white cooler door will soon blend into the scenery real well.

Here's another shot of the door being carved on our MultiCam CNC router.

I strongly believe that it is important that we as creative sign makers offer our customers a broad range of services to meet their needs and even more importantly that we do it in the most creative way imaginable.

-grampa dan