You’re never quite sure what each day will bring at Sunriver Metal Works. What is one person’s junk is another person’s treasure, we always say.
Yesterday we spent a couple of hours combing through scraps of metal from the CNC table. These are the pieces that fall out from the various metal signs and wall art as the plasma cuts through the sheet of steel. The pieces (or scraps to some) may be large enough to stay on the table slats. Or they may be the fall outs from a 1-1/2″ letter from a sign. That’s the treasure we were looking for yesterday. A 1-1/2 inch letter “r” that was in the table water clouded by the steel cutting dross.
We had created a sign for a couple that had each of their names cut out of the sign’s top layer. The bottom layer was done in copper patina, so the copper would shine through the top layer cut out. As luck would have it, that sheet of steel chose not to become the typical shiny copper. You’re never quite sure how it will come out. Translation – patina the steel, and hope for the best! It looked like it would shine through, but the customer has the last say. We heard from them the day after they installed it on their fence. Their names didn’t show up as much as they wanted them to.
Thus the search in the junk pile for the missing “r” in Bruce. We found the “B” and the “uce” as well as “Jane”. Mike was hoping to try to polish the pieces and see if that gave our customers the desired look. If it did, he would then attach them to the sign and spray another layer of clear coat to seal them. We’ll do that next week. If that works, we’ll re-cut an “r” and finish it up. If it doesn’t, we have a couple of other options to try.
Finally, we always want our customers to be happy with their finished piece. If they aren’t, we will refund their money. We haven’t refunded any money yet – Mike always seems to pull the rabbit out of the hat and make people happy.
They really like the dogs, though. 🙂
