Coming Around The Bend

Memorial Day Weekend included some time off to go camping with my family.
There was both rain and sunshine, all of it fun.  I frequently talk about how lucky
I am to be doing the work I'm doing, and how much fun it is...but make no mistake-
my work is my passion, but my family is my soul.  Sitting around a camp fire telling
silly jokes and taking my daughter for one of her first 4-wheeler rides are the fuel
that keeps me moving.  We slogged through mud, ate burnt bacon and made the
memories that will keep me smiling long after my little girl has gone off to build her
own family.  Make a deposit in your own memory bank when you can. It's worth it.

Now I'm back in the shop and happy to be back on the steampack...

First off, I used an existing piece of artwork from a series from David Butler called
Butler's Gold.  I enjoy much of his work, and knew that I wanted to use this piece
at some point- I decided to add a kind of "badge" to the pack body and this piece
seemed perfect.  I brought it into the CarveWright designer program and added
the various pieces of text that would customize it for my need.

I set the carving to be about 1/4" into a 1/2" piece of Azek PVC.  I put the material into
the machine and let it carve for just under 30 minutes.  The piece was only 7" x 11" so
I knew it wouldn't take too long.

Now it was time to put my new material and heating technique to good use....I cooked
it for about 4 minutes at 285 degrees and gently and carefully formed it over the 4" pvc
piece I used as a "buck".  Once I was happy with the shape, I poured some cold water over it to quickly
cool it off and set it's shape.

A little Azek brand pvc glue and it was attached solidly within minutes. It'll take overnight to fully cure, but it's more than solid enough now to continue other work.  I'm really enjoying this stuff!