More Than Signs II

It was a hot, humid and rainy florida afternoon; her long, sumptuous jet black hair flowed gently over her...OOPS! Sorry, wrong blog! er... ahem...

The Cook here again, I know I promised a woodworking post next, but that project is still in progress and I couldn't wait to put up another post. Blogger fever I guess.

Today's project is an interesting one as always; a customer approached us inquiring about our mad CNC routing skillz, he wanted an acrylic cover for a grain processor's controller, he wanted it quick, and we, always looking towards helping our customers, took the challenge.

He brought us clean, clear and detailed instructions and measurements, always a must...

Well, maybe the plans weren't as clean and clear but they were detailed enough, and we set off to get a scale-to-size drawing on the computer.

We are constantly looking out for the latest developments on equipment and software in the industry, and strive to use the best tools to get the best results on our projects; this allows us to quickly get precise files to work with, such as the one above; once the main plan was laid and checked, we brought it onto our CNC routing software.

The final product called for 90 degree bends on acrylic to form a box, so we had to make angled scores on the piece in order to make the bends and the walls of the box as straight as possible.

To make these scores, we used a V-Carve bit, which you can see in this EXTREME ACTION CLOSE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once the grooves were carved and cleaned, it was time to make the main shape cut, this is what the piece looked like once the router finished cutting:

Now is time to get the bends!; since this was a small box (no project too small!) we used a table heater to heat the acrylic to the point were it is soft enough to bend but not so hot that it would bubble up

This is done by pure feeling, there really is no set rule on when the acrylic is ready (I personally like to keep it a bit on the stiff side and let the carryover heat do the rest) so, when the moment comes, all you have to do is hold one side and bend the piece into position, as you can see on the following fancy-pants video, enjoy:

Nice eh?, this is repeated as many times as needed, in this case 4 folds did the trick, and here is the final result:

Working with acrylic is always a treat, you get really clean results, and the material is sturdy and durable, comes in a wide variety of colors and can be assembled and combined with a host of materials; it is great for sinage and protective enclosures where visibilty is needed, such as this project or displays for literature or product...

This is it from me today, I promise the next post is woodworking!, and it will knock your socks off... fo' sho'... I'll see you next time, I'm off to finish that post on that other blog.... BYE!

More Than Signs!

'ello, "The Cook" here...

This week I had a chance to step out of the box a little bit and create a "Water Kite" for one of the guys here at the shop who is an avid outdoorsman.

This is a nifty device used to tow a swimmer behind a boat at a slow speed so the swimmer can scan the seafloor or river bed for scallops, clams, maybe even treasure!.

I used half inch King Colorcore, which is a great material for signage and marine parts. It is an engravable polymer consisting of three layers, it is extremely durable and is great for outdoor applications where it will be exposed to the elements and within reach of the general public (parks, trails, subdivision entrances).

We had a general idea of what we were looking for as far as functionality goes, so our adventurer sat down on the computer and laid out a design for the main body and the parts:

After deciding on what colors to be used, I brought this layout onto our CNC Routing software, set all the parameters and let'er rip!

We operate (2) 5' x 10' CNC Routing tables, and let me tell you, they are EXTREMELY precise, making them ideal tools to produce production parts, full scale prototypes, architectural elements.

Here's a shot of the handles with a little "personalization"

The swimmer holds onto the "bicycle" handles, and by pulling towards any direction he or she can steer to cover any area of the surface below, and if anything is spotted, pull up and signal the spotter on the boat.

After all the parts were routed, all that was needed were some screws and this baby was ready for action

Our Bear Grylls reported that the kite performed beautifully, he was on the water all day and was able to collect a ton of scallops, which had enough meat to feed...wait....what?... two people? seriously?

Anyway, it was great to have the opportunity to fabricate this thing, and as always I'm looking forward to projects like this, were I can bring to life the customer's vision.

Stay tuned, we are preparing a really neat post on woodwork next!

See ya later!

"The Cook"

Deliveries, deliveries, deliveries

Today tractor trailers were lined up to deliver product for our latest sign endeavor. With the change in our economy, comes a change in banks, and for that we're thankful. At a time when the light at the end of the tunnel seems dim to some, we are pleased to say that Sunbelt is still shining bright. With help from national sign partners across this great country, we are currently in the process of updating many sites within Orlando and the surrounding area. Look our crews in an area near you, and remember that "We can do Everything Under the Sun".