On Friday, the sculpting crew carved out the brickwork on the last base section of the NEB’s Fun World. Paintwork will begin on Monday. Before that happens, it is time to do the full shop shuffle once again. We’ll first pull the three giant frames full of wall sections out of the shop. After a quick cleaning, we’ll move in three frames with wall sections, including this and the partially painted sections. There are four panels on two frames left to sculpt. It is all coming together pretty quickly. Stay tuned…
New Henry - grampa project
With the New Year now a reality, it is time for Henry and I to select a new project we can work on together. After some discussion, he enthusiastically decided we would build a new parade float for Yarrow Days, which will take place in early June. We have five months to prepare, but as we will do most of our work on weekends, we are often busy with many other activities, so there is no time to waste. Henry and I walked out into the yard to consider the possibilities. He decided it was time for something new rather than further improvement on his dinosaur car. As we toured through our boneyard, we thought about creating a fancy trailer float which would be pulled behind the tractor or perhaps finally getting my hot rod running for the event. Many other options were discussed and discarded.
Henry then eyed the little Jeep I had built for a parade several years ago, which he no longer remembered, for he was very young at the time. The defective motor can be easily replaced, and Henry relishes the idea of that task. He has the tools required. Henry asked if we could build a candy cannon to mount to the windshield for him to properly distribute the candy to kids lining the parade. We went back into the house and did a little research on the web.
With this extra knowledge in hand, Henry was eager to get a start on the project. We headed into town to begin the process of picking out the perfect materials for the task. As we drove, Henry, with a little encouragement from Grampa, dreamed up additions to the project that would make it even better. To handle the compressor, battery and air tank, we’ll build a small trailer to tow with the Jeep. On top of the trailer, we’ll mount a giant cannon just for show.
And it got even better after that. Henry decided the little Jeep would be painted bright red, and we would call ourselves ‘Candy Crusade”. He also recruited Grandma to sew up two colourful capes which we can wear. He also asked I take a picture of him in the project vehicle before we start. We’ll be posting updates regularly. Stay tuned…
Prototype done!
Keith had a busy and very productive week creating the prototype for ten custom lamp standards for Vala’s Pumpkin Patch in Nebraska. The lamps are heavy-duty, welded steel from top to bottom. Keith kept the FastCut CNC busy as each lamp contains 22 custom-cut pieces of sheet metal. As each piece was proved on the prototype, Keith cut identical pieces for the rest of the production run. Next week, he can proceed at full speed welding together all the pre-cut pieces.
