When Peter is in charge on a concrete day we know we are going to have to work hard. At the beginning of the day we discussed the goal which was to sculpt the bottom half of the globe and if we did well to do the top portion as well. By first coffee the goal had mysteriously changed to sculpt the entire globe including the ribbon around it. A goal that ambitious meant all of the other jobs in the shop were going to be set aside for the day. The concrete was in place by noon and as it rapidly cured lunch plans were also set aside for the duration. It was all hands on deck with the sculpting tools. The push was well worth the effort however as we indeed accomplished our new more ambitious goal and it looked fabulous thanks to the efforts of the entire crew!
Still BIG!
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...
