Category: Uncategorized
Chicago Blackhawks Fan Sign
As usual, I was presented with a last minute Christmas gift creation this year. When a family of 6 is passionate about their Chicago Blackhawks, what do you get them for Christmas? Autographed pictures? Hockey pucks from scoring a goal? Season tickets? I guess that stuff is too clichè, which is why she came to me for ideas. So I came up with this…..a 12”x24” custom personalized plaque made of plywood. Letters and Blackhawk head are separate elements that are somewhat recessed into the plywood. Take a look!
Concept images created in Cinema 4D.
Rustoleum’s “Poppy Red” spray paint on plywood.
The back side of the 3/4″ plywood blank has a 45º bevel.
1/2″ plywood laminated with 1/8″ styrene is the base for the characters.
Characters are cut using a 1/8″ endmill router bit on the CNC.
Finished characters!
Using the same 1/8″ router bit, I cut a profile path for the characters that were previously cut.
The profile cut of each character is set to 0.25″.
I cut the outside profile of each character deeper than the rest because I’ve found that it minimizes tearout in the plywood. It also gives a little bit more depth to the cavity behind each character.
Looks good!
Looks good!
At this point, I’ve applied paint mask over the red surface so that I protect it from the black paint that is applied to each character cavity.
Progress…
Progress…
Progress…
Sooooo at some point, I must have dropped something right in the middle of the work piece….it looks worse than it actually is but it’ll still require a little bit of work to fix….
A little bit of wet sanding and more paint and we’ll be good as new!
The stripes at the bottom of the plaque have been painted and we’re just about finished!
The Blackhawk head is a custom sticker that I created just for this project.
Hmmm…..why didn’t I just paint the entire cavity black?…..
I positioned pieces of tape in the character cavities as a mask to keep spray paint out. Because I glued the characters to the sign blank, I wanted to make sure that I had a nice, secure hold onto an unpainted surface.
Finished!
Finished!
Can’t forget my logo, website and date!
Cubs Stadium Seat Restoration
I had a couple sets of these to do in a relatively short amount of time. The customer had purchased the seats (in green) from an auction held at Wrigley Field (quite a while ago) and was looking to have them restored to look like new. Once I got them into the shop, I contemplated saving as much of the original wood as possible as opposed to fabricating entirely new seat slats out of white oak. They were caked with Continue reading “Cubs Stadium Seat Restoration”
Bosch Reciprocating Saw Prototype
Bosch Power Tools is in the business of creating, well, power tools. Good ones. So naturally, when I was approached by their marketing team on a Thursday afternoon about a new project, I accepted the job with enthusiasm. Even with a very tight deadline: due by the upcoming Monday. In most cases, a 72 hour window of time is unrealistic. This project was a little different and definitelygoing to be a challenge, but I was up for this challenge!
(You might be asking, why, would a global tool giant like Bosch come to me to build a prototype tool when they could have their pick from many manufacturing facilities all over the world? Simple: all those other places couldn’t complete this task in the 72 hour deadline. Seriously, it was that simple.)
The project was this; build a fully-functioning reciprocating saw and make it look like a possible production Bosch tool. The tool was purely for presentational purposes, so it obviously didn’t need to perform to any drop tests, stress tests, or whatever tests they put tools through before they go to market. It also didn’t have to be an exact match as far as aesthetics went, but needed to be close….I don’t have any fancy mold-making machines or an engineer tucked in my back pocket. What I do have, so I’m told, is a creative brain that would allow me to sculpt this tool. Ok, ok,….I guess I should tell you that I was also given a competitors (who shall remain nameless) tool that was on the market at the time. I would use this tool as a platform for building the Bosch prototype. Check out the following pics of the progress…
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