As usual Wayne Locke ran his Austin, TX Camp as a two day event. This is because the Shopbotters in this part of the country are very active, and we always have a good sized group for the event.
Friday was an unusually warm day with the temps being in the upper 80’s.
Things kicked off on Friday AM with Santiago LaVerde showing us how he recently created a project for a client who is a ” Star Gate” fan. The job involved building an 11 foot diameter replica of the ” gate” as seen in the TV series for his client’s home. Santiago put in a remarkable amount of time to create numerous files which were all separate components in this massive edifice. he also explained to us ways of using the Microsoft program ” photo story” to make “movies” that can be used when selling a job to a client.
Rich Bartko followed up with a Show and tell demo of a machine he has built to enable people to make soap molds. He explained the process involved in making such molds, and why he chose the particular materials he did.
The entire group then got into a discussion about the current ” business climate” in the country, and we went over some ways to help people keep things rolling along through the crisis (this included a session on why web pages have value to every business…).
Grant Bailey did a short session on some of the consulting work he’s been doing for clients, and Shopbotters, and he brought in some samples of a few of those projects.
John Sandage and Ray Payne explained how they are using their ‘Bot to build molds for thermoforming, and we got into a discussion of possible applications for this process.
On Friday evening some of us wandered out to Neville Stewart’s shop for a few hours, and we got to see him doing some prep work for his Sculpt Nouveau demo on Saturday. His shop is great, and next time I hope to get there in daylight so I can get shots of the solar array he’s using to power his place.
Woke up Saturday morning and found out that a ” low” had passed through Austin overnight and the temperature was now 45 degrees…
Saturday was a whole new round of sessions including one done by Brett Dickinson who showed pix of his students latest award winning show at the USA Skills competition. He also offered help to anyone wanting to encourage their local school district to purchase a Shopbot..
Raymond Chapman gave a very detailed demonstration of the process of applying gold leaf to a variety of objects. He walked us through the selection of the leaf, application of sizing, techniques for clean application, etc. he did prismatic letters, plastic signs, and masked lettering in his demo. Ray managed to convince many of us that gold leafing WAS possible with a little practice and I think many people will be trying it in their shops very soon.
Neville Stewart followed up ray with his demo of the Sculpt Nouveau process of coatings, and patinas. He showed off some completed projects, and ” finished’ the project he had started at his shop Friday evening.
David Lemke then explained his latest technique of creating ” female” molds for the building of power boats. He showed his building jigs, his fastening techniques, and his alignment processes. He also ran through the economic advantages of building boats with his method, and he showed us a few projects he has recently completed.
Wayne Locke did a couple of sessions on Saturday. His first session concentrated on using a new technique which converts standard spray guns into pressure fed devices ( as compared to a siphon/suction method) . He then spoke later in the day about the way he incorporates the Shopbot into HIS business, and how it allows him to take on certain jobs.
Grant, and Santiago both jumped in again late in the afternoon so they could go over some of their material from Friday, and to answer questions from some people who only attended the Camp on Saturday.
It was a very interactive group of people, and I’d expect that a number of them will be in Houston for the Camp on May 2nd…
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