As part of the ride feature/sign we are building, an iron butterfly which will be perched on an upper branch of the tree. Yesterday the giant bug got it's wings. Since it is a mechanical bug the wings are 'actuated' by faux hydraulic cylinders which protrude from the bug's back and attach to the wings Everything is built in sections to facilitate powder coating, shipping and reassembly. There will be some hand sculpting and painting as well to bring out the full character of the creature. It's going to be a fun piece when it is finished and will be unlike anything we've built previously.
Family celebration at work
Our family enjoys working together every day. Each of us plays an important role in the creation of everything we build. Together we are much, much stronger than we would be separately. Ideas are shared and critiqued, and made much better in the process. We all have each other's backs all through the day, encouraging, helping and simply enjoying each other's company while we work. We laugh a lot every day. It's something I am truly grateful for - every day.
Each time a birthday rolls around we celebrate with a cake of some kind. Today, Phoebe spent the morning whipping up a spectacular confectionary creation for her uncle Peter. As is our custom, the cake was shared with all of the crew at afternoon break. And it was good! Happy birthday Peter!
Making sparks
With a change in direction to the next project there are a lot of projects in the fabrication stage in the shop currently. The plasma cutter is going steady and plenty of sparks flying from the welders. I'm busy doing the primary frame on the next feature, Peter on the second level of the first feature while Shane also works on other pieces. We still aren't revealing the details of the projects but we can share pictures of progress to date. The first picture shows the not so little creature I am working on... It's going to have four legs, two arms and is robotic. More details to come tomorrow...
Shane polished off the inside of the frame for the tree. He is building a lot of character as he does all that overhead welding of the hundreds of feet of pencil rod. Now we move on to the outside shapes.
With one of our welding machines currently out for repairs it was time to purchase a new one, leaving the oldest to be on standby when it comes back from being fixed. The shiny new welding machine arrived today and we decided it would be Shane's machine - right out of the box. It was love at first sight. :)
