WELCOME!

It is hard to believe that it was almost ten years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one of these machines - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Along with the CNC router I discovered the wonderful material called Precision Board and the glues, primers and other companion products they offer. Since then we have gone through many tons of the material using it in most signs and projects we tackle. This journal will chronicle our many adventures both past, present and future. I'll talk from the perspective of someone who pushes these products to the creative limit on a daily basis. I'll be adding to the stories two or three times each week. -dan

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Ship shape

I tool pathed the slices of the ship two different ways. For the middle two slices of each half I used only a 3/8" ball nose bit at 80% overlap. The large tool made short work of the hull pieces. The smaller section of the hull with the window needed a little more detail so I roughed it at 50% using the 3/8" ball nose bit and then did a finish pass using a 1/8" ball nose bit with a 80% overlap. The six hull pieces were arranged to fit onto a 1/3 sheet of 2" thick Precision Board  I started the file on the router shortly after lunch and then went outside to do some tractor work in the yard. When I went back in the shop around 4:30 the file was done.


I couldn't resist mocking up the pieces to see how it would look when it is done. I loved it!



I'll design and routed a few more pieces yet for the ship including the back window and wheel, perhaps a few more. The rest of the pieces of detail will be hand sculpted. It will have to wait a few weeks until the Cultus Lake project is done but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

-dan