Our driveway is a long one and presents the temptation to race down it to the shop at the back of the property. We needed a sign to grab folks attention and slow them down! Dan did up a quick sketch, then set to work making it happen.
The sign features a chicken sculpted in epoxy. First, Dan welded a steel armature. Then he pressed a ball of tinfoil into the middle if the armature to bulk it out a little before he started sculpting. He sculpted the form of the bird, then add feathers, one at a time.
The next step was to create the routing file for the sign in EnRoute. Dan used his custom cartoon font. The woodgrain bitmap texture was from our Texture Magic: Classic Collection. The back panel for the sign was a flipped version of the front, without the lettering. The front and back of the sign were routed from 1.5" thick 30 lbs. Precision Board HDU.
The centre piece of the sign was made with a piece of 1" thick material. Dan routed a 'T' shaped hole in this piece to accommodate a steel structure.
Dan drilled two holes from the top and pushed the extra long chicken leg armature through it, then welded them to the steel 'T'. Two heavy steel rods also pushed through holes in the back panel and then welded to the 'T' with the back panel in place. This structure was then welded to a larger armature which would form the basis for the 'tree' that would hold up the sign with the chicken perched on it.
The sign still has plenty of work to be done before it is finished, but it is well on its way.