By coincidence our Camp at Kitty Hawk this year coincided with the offshore passage of Hurricane Noel as it skirted the Outer Banks. As you can see from the picture above we got a bit of wind, and surf, and even a little rain, but it takes more than a Hurricane to stop a Camp Shopbot…We even lost electricity for the morning due to the storm, but luckily Shopbotter Jim Zaccaro and his family had driven their motor home down for the Camp and had it parked outside of Doug/John Roughton’s shop, so he fired up the generator, we ran an extension cord to the projector, and he and his wife Kitty brewed up pots of coffee to jump start the morning!
In spite of the weather we had an even larger turnout of Campers than last year, and that included a sizable contingent of Shopbot staff who drove over from Durham. Some people came from as far as Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Dick Morgan came down from Connecticut on his way back home to Florida…
Doug and his Son John have spent the last year building houses, carving signs, and creating furniture pieces. They’re using their machine in all of those ventures. They showed us a number of pieces they had coated with Luminore which is a metallic spray on finish, and they explained how they applied the material and buffed the pieces to their final luster. They also had some pieces which were coated in Sculpt Nouveau so people could see different options. You can see some of their work on the Shopbot Flickr page : http://www.flickr.com/photos/campshopbot
Scott Julian from Shopbot gave a presentation which covered the features in the new “Partworks” software suite which is being distributed with all new machines as of this month. He covered both 2D, and 3D files, and toolpaths.
Jim Zaccaro explained how he has been carving unusual materials such as slate, and then went on to tell us how he is offering a “full service” business start up package in which he provides signage, a web page, and even company clothing for people just getting their business rolling.
Brady Watson showed some vacuum tricks including a new hold down jig made of “Trex” decking material.
Keith Outten told the group about the possibilities of creating “ADA” signs for public buildings, and he also had information about the use, and purchase of Corian.
I did a session on different methods of making signs, and I showed off some new materials that might make the process easier for people.
As usual the time spent between sessions was probably the best part of the Camp as people had the chance to exchange ideas, and experiences, and ask one another a lot of questions. We had a couple of people there who had never seen a Shopbot before, and we answered their questions as well.
By mid afternoon the sky started to clear up, the sun came out, and the power came back on. The surf was still pretty impressive, but although it came through the sand dunes, and got pretty close to the shop, it never made it all the way inside.
After the Camp was over we went to Doug’s house ( which is a couple of blocks inland, and on a bluff) and had a great barbecue, and it was the perfect ending to a very full day…
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