I spent my shop time welding up the Lolo’s bracket and then laminating the four layers of the Lolo’s sign over the welded internal frame. Tomorrow I hope to weld up the tree structural frame, mount the bracket and then I can sculpt the woodgrain onto the edges of the sign. We’re making great progress. Stay tuned for more…
Bracket extraordinaire!
We believe that brackets that hold up signs should be part of the sign. The bracket should help tell the story. The Lolo’s Fudgery sign and bracket is a great example. Typically the sign and bracket would be bolted to an existing post. We will instead build the bracket and sign and then weld this to an underlying structure. Then we’ll sculpt the gnarly tree that ‘holds it up’. This is going to be a fun project! Stay tuned…
Machine magic
We’ve enjoyed and made good use of our MultiCam CNC router for more than fifteen years. I remember seeing one for the first time at a trade show and instantly wanting to get one. I instinctively knew the machine could do precision work better and faster than I could by hand. I designed the files to reflect my personal style and then let the machine do the grunt work while I kept busy doing other more interesting tasks. While most people’s results on similar machines look machine made I purposely strived to make our finished product appear handmade. When the router is finished carving out the pieces we assemble and add more details - all by hand. Before we took our first paid assignment with the machine I first learned to create textured files - something that no one else was yet doing. That effort has paid off handsomely. On Friday morning I put the Lolo’s Fudge sign on the router. Both sides took up the bulk of a 4’ x 8’ sheet of Precision Board. To create the sign faces the CNC router worked away on its own through the day and into the evening. I checked it regularly for peace of mind but the machine did its thing effortlessly. After work the machine kept churning while I went to the house for supper. I checked it twice during the evening and then went back out to the shop at 11:00 PM to cut the piece out and shut the machine down. The sign faces looked fabulous! That to me is still magical - even after fifteen years!
