The good thing about finishing early and having a completed project sitting in the parking lot for a bit is that we get to enjoy Vala’s pirate ship each day as we go out to the shop. The bright colours and oversized skull figurehead make me smile whenever I walk by. As good as these pieces look in our driveway, I know they will look even better when installed at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch in due time.
Instant sword
Each day, I head out to the shop with a plan, or at least a wish list of what I hope to accomplish before quitting time. Then the day happens. Today was certainly like that. I had just started on my list when Peter requested that I make the sword that would hang in a specially built nook in the Copper Crown suite of the Hazelnut Inn. It was needed as the sculpting crew is making great progress on the stone sculpting on the walls.
Creating the sword involved routing the hilt using a miniature version of the chandelier file. While our ShopSabre CNC Router did its magic, I made a digital file for our FastCut CNC plasma cutter and set it in motion on the sword blade. Welding up the two halves of the sword and grinding things smooth didn’t take long. The routed pieces were ready to be fit and glued before lunch. After lunch, it was time to do a little sculpting of the braided leather handle and fancy fleur-de-lis hilt decoration.
A trip to town for welding supplies still left me just enough time to do a teeny bit of work on the chandelier fixture I had started in the morning. At the end of the day, I already had my to-do list for tomorrow. I’ll just do what I intended today. Stay tuned…
Working canopy
It was an exciting day for Henry as we worked on his jet parade float. Henry helped me carefully measure and cut the plexiglass and then screw it into position using self-tappers and fender washers. Once we had finished, Henry had to jump into the cockpit and test it, of course. He declared the working canopy his favourite part of the project. Next up, Henry wants to sculpt the jet engine and give the smoke machine another test. Stay tuned…
