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After a break of a few years we went back up to Maine, at a new location- Sebago Signworks which is in Limington, ME. Our host, Devin Fahie has developed a successful business doing all types of signs, and vehicle wraps, and he added a Shopbot to expand his “in house” dimensional sign capability.
We had a good sized group (40+) and there was a pretty wide range of businesses covered. Construction, to boat building, luthiers ( we apparently had the majority of mandolin makers in Maine in attendance…),sign making, craft products, entrepreneurs, etc., etc.
Started off with a session on building vacuum systems, and a few “Campers” brought in vacuum jigs that they had developed for specific applications. Terry Kovacs showed a clever vacuum clamp he’d developed, and Phil O’Rourke showed us a custom separator he built for his dust collection system.
There was a lot of interest in creating, and carving 3D pieces so we went through the steps of a “typical” 3D project from file creation, to final coating. That led to a short session on the latest in coatings for foam, as well as some samples of Sculpt Nouveau and Modern Masters that people had tried.
Paul Zank showed us the secret of how he does his “V carve inlay” with some samples, and a walk through of the design process.
Steve Hallee brought in a new design/product that he’s developed to cut on his Shopbot, a traveling version of a mandolin which can be carried aboard a plane as carry on baggage.
Phil O’Rourke showed some pieces he has been working on. A family crest which involved texturing/sculpting etc. in Aspire, and a small carved wooden box with a ‘woven border’.
We started a sign building session and spoke about some of the realities of sign building. Gary York gave a great demo on the process of doing gold leafing on your own signs. And we had a number of sign companies at the Camp so we got to hear a variety of styles and opinions on different areas of the business.
Through out the day people were all discussing how they have been learning to market their products beyond their immediate region because of the lack of a local economy to sell to. And as usually happens at a Camp like this we had about 7 people find out that they were only a few miles from another Shopbotter, but had no idea…
Devin’s wife Reneé and her Mom, cooked a great bar b cue lunch for everyone , and we used their company work van as a place to grab coffee or lunch.
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