It is both fun and challenging to cut out hundreds of pieces of metal and then weld them into something large and fancy. Neil and Keith were doing the fabricating, first taking the time to lay out and build an accurate jig. Once the temporary jig was secure they fit the many pieces together, starting with the largest and working their way down. At this stage, everything is only tacked to minimize heat warpage. Once all the sections and gussets were assembled they jumped around and stitch-welded the entire piece. Tomorrow they will accurately center the hub section and then begin fitting and welding in the spokes. This giant wheel will break into two halves so we can get it out of the shop and fit on a truck for transport. Stay tuned as this project comes together…
Lolo's paint begins
The Lolo’s Fudgery sign is now fully sculpted and moved on to the paint department. The first coat of colour used leftover paint off our shelf as our client finalized the end colour choice. That decision was made as the week closed and we picked up the new colours in preparation for the final painting process which will begin this week. Stay tuned for more…
Building a waterwheel
We always have a wide variety of projects underway in the shop. Our goal is to keep our entire crew busy and productive which is a definite challenge. Generally, I like to plan a couple of weeks out to ensure projects flow through in all stages of construction to maximize the specialized abilities of each member of the team. Last week as the shop was plugged with large pieces in the sculpting and painting phase we had Keith busy in the back shop fabricating welded steel assemblies which will be used as soon as the finished pieces are moved from the shop. That event happened on Thursday. The minute the big workspace was swept out we moved the prefabricated assemblies into the workspace and began setting up the jig to build the large waterwheel. It is going to be very large! Stay tuned for more this coming week…
