A few days ago, I mentioned how the features we build shrink rapidly as we move them out of our shop. Today we moved the base of the Bug Whirled sign out into the parking lot. It barely cleared the shop door (as planned). Out in the parking lot it appeared a bit smaller than it did inside but it still looked pretty big. I parked the jeep next to it to give a sense of scale... and it still looks monstrous! I suspect it is going to get a second look or two as it travels down the freeway on the lowboy truck. To get a sense of scale of the finished piece I posted the picture of the study model below... it will tower more than twenty feet in the air when we assemble it! The spinning coaster will circle around the feature.
Hanging the 'banner'
I went back out to the shop around 11:00 last night, just as the MultiCam CNC machine finished cutting the Bug Whirled sign. I was delighted with what I saw. The folds of the 'fabric' banner sign hung as nicely as I imagined they would. I shut the shop down and headed back to the house, excited to come back in the morning to work on it some more. This morning I welded up a steel frame and laminated the routed pieces around it. We then lifted it into position on the tree armature and welded it permanently in place. The sign is now plenty strong, able to survive in the theme park environment. This is going to be a cool sign when we are done! Stay tuned...
Marvellous MultiCam machine!
While we love to work with our hands as much as is practical on our projects, we also embrace the most marvellous of modern tools as well. We started the sign for the third feature for the PNE project today. I created the file on the computer using every creative trick I could muster. The goal was to make it look like a cloth banner draped between the two top corners. I then started the MultiCam CNC router to do it's work and it is turning out pretty cool. The marvellous machine will finish it's work later tonight. Tomorrow we will begin to add even more magic the old fashioned way - by hand.
