Bend, weld, cut. Repeat as necessary.

In only three days we have bent, welded, and cut more than a mile of steel. The Wilderness Adventure area is taking shape quickly. Matt, Marty and I spent the entire day under our welding helmets welding up a storm. Brando has also assisted by cutting steel, drilling holes for anchor bolts in the concrete walls and hammering in the anchors. We weld the pencil rod frames to these attachment points.

The framework for the waterfall mountain is substancially complete as are the walkways and planters leading to the cave entrances as well as a large planter on the far side of the pond.

Tomorrow we begin working our way down the retaining walls by the water tower. We'll also deliver the first swinging bridge tower and the small log for the Wilderness Adventure. It has been a very busy and productive week up at the lake and. In the shop the second swinging bridge tower is ready for mud and the tree fort is coming along nicely.  Stay tuned for more progress...

-grampa dan

Tying a bunch on

This week, with the slightly warmer weather, is going to be largely spent outside up at the project site. Matt, Marty and I are busy welding up thousands of feet of pencil rod frames while the rest of the crew follows behind tying on the diamond lath to what we have assembled. The welding is happening in the Wilderness Adventure area. We are fabricating the structures for the waterfalls and retaining walls. Our goal for the week is to complete most of the retaining walls in this area.

As fast as we can weld the framework, the wiring crew is tying on the lath. They may in fact be gaining on us - just a little. The entire front fence is now ready for mud and the crew is quickly working their way down the ramp to the bumper boats. When they get to the bottom they'll jump to the other side - where we are doing our best to stay one step ahead.

The structures are still somewhat see-through but the final shape is now readily apparent. The park is quickly taking shape. There's five months and one week to go. And counting.

-grampa dan

The flip side

With the exception of signs that attach directly to a wall we always finish the back side of our dimensional signs with a little more dimension. A minimum standard for a free standing sign would be to texture the back and then paint it the same color as the background or edge border. We always laminate our brackets and frames between layers of the sign with only the mounting points showing. This reduces clutter and makes our signs a whole lot stronger. But often we go even further for maximum effect. A current sign is a good example.

Everyone will see the front of the wagon wheel sign as they approach the attraction. Some will notice the back as the waiting line for the ride loops back. The sign will be mounted to a ticket booth with the bottom of the sign about seven and a half feet off of the ground. It is plenty close to get a good look at the details.

We probably could have gotten away with a flat, dark painted back on the sign but we could do so much better. A fully dimensional and textured back was the first step. The sign back received the same three coats of base color and the three colored glazes too. Details like a hollow hub and little prairie dog tail will reward those who take the time to look.

We take extra care coming and going on our projects.

-grampa dan