Perfectly true

Some components of our projects simply have to be accurate and perfectly square to function. The challenge is to do this and still give them our unique cartoon look so they fit in with everything around them.

The water wheel in the Western area of the Cultus Lake Adventure Park is just such a project. The wheel is styled after an historical Pelton wheel, used throughout the west in remote mining operations. The challenge is to make the wheel round, not wobble as it turns and balanced too so it rotates evenly with only the force of the water passing under it.

I used CAD software to help me get the pieces accurately designed. The pieces fit on two four by eight foot sheets of 1/4" thick steel plate. This is one of the sheets.

I farmed out the cutting of the heavy steel to a shop with a CNC (computerized) plasma cutter. The pieces came out perfectly true and faithful to the files I had designed on the computer. Then it was time to begin assembly. The wheel itself will be about thirteen and a half feet in diameter, too big to easily transport to the site. This means we will build most of it in place. But we did the hub assembly in the shop at a workbench to ensure a perfect start. Peter gave me a hand. It took a little head scratching and some complicated figuring of some advanced math (good thing Peter had his degree!) :)  We measured twice and cut once and even managed to get things right the first time.

Peter and I were feeling pretty proud of our efforts so far. Tomorrow we begin the hard part. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Fits like a glove.

There are many things about our business that I don't often think about. One of these is gloves. When I work with a small crew I do the bulk of the welding. If a welding glove develops a hole or is worn out by heat or hard use I toss it into the trash bin and grab another. There are generally up to a dozen dozen new pair waiting in the cupboard. I never give it a second thought until we run low and it's time to pick up another dozen to replenish the stock.

When we work on a jobsite with a large crew it is a totally different story. There are a couple dozen pairs of welding gloves in the tool trailer. All of the crew use them as necessary to do rough tasks or when they are welding. When it is raining or they are handling wet materials the gloves get soggy in a hurry and are changed out as necessary. The theory is that the wet gloves get put in a special bin and are then put into the shop each night to dry out for the next day. The reality is that this seldom happens and the gloves get pretty beat in a hurry. If someone welds too close to their hand the finger or thumbs shrink badly and the glove becomes impossible to wear. Stitching breaks or wears out, things poke into the leather and the gloves develop holes. These gloves too are not fit for further use.

Today I went through the tool trailer finding gloves stashed in many places. The big bin of gloves was also dragged into the shop. I then tried on each glove, carefully looking for holes where sparks might fly and for fingers too distorted to comfortably wear. Some gloves were too ugly to even give a try. The left handed gloves (to the right in the picture) in good repair were in shortest supply as they take the hardest beating. The pieces to be welded are held in this hand and so they are the ones often cooked beyond use. The welding stinger is held in the right hand - away from the heat and sparks and so those (on the left in the picture) outnumbered the lefts by more than double. The pile of gloves (in the foreground) with holes, burns or worn beyond recognition was the largest and filled an entire garbage can when I was done.

Our work gloves get used hard and serve us well. With well over a dozen employees on site each day they get used up pretty quickly too. It's probably time to stock the trailer with another dozen new pairs. But you can bet I'll hide them so these older pairs get used a little more first.

-grampa dan

Nobody here but us chickens

It is amazing how time flies by so quickly. From time to time I am reminded of just how fast it goes.

It was twenty years ago I did up some artwork for a play at the Chemainus Dinner Theatre. I had designed the theatre a year or two before and happily supported the productions there. One of the things I did was draw up some poster artwork for one of the plays. It was called CHICKENS. It was one of my earlier cartoon animals and I enjoyed drawing it immensely. As I recalled I found it easier back then to do a quick little sculpt with plasticene and then use that as a reference for my drawing. Those early efforts helped build my confidence as an artist and were part of my success to this day.

But twenty years is a long time and I had long forgotten about that chicken poster - until I got an email the other day from the writer of the play to use that same artwork for the twentieth anniversary edition of the play. The original artwork is packed away somewhere and I didn't locate it on my first quick search. I decided it was easier to ask him if he had some printed form of it to use for reference. He provided a teeny-weeny low resolution picture of an album cover which was good enough. I then redrew a digital version for the current poster.

It was fun to revisit some artwork and ideas from so long ago. As I redid the drawing I also found myself fondly revisiting memories from that same era, remembering experiences and friends from a place we no longer live.

Although that old artwork still pleased me I couldn't resist making some slight tweaks to improve a couple of little things. There is always room for improvement.

Life is good and there have been so many wonderful adventures along the way.

-grampa dan