Generally, any excuse I can come up with to hang out at WISCO is worth the trip. I used to live right next door to this place and put up with their beeping trucks backing up every morning at 7am. Now I just get to enjoy to good part of the experience: checking out the welding equipment and hanging our with welding guys. The interesting brewing connection is that we will buy our compressed nitrogen and oxygen from WISCO when we open, so there is no better time to build a vendor relationship.
The plan for the sign is spell out 'Revolution Brewing' in stainless steel letters with red lighting behind the letters. Back ten years ago when I first tried to launch this project the one bright spot was the artwork developed by homebrewing virtuoso Randy Mosher. Randy crafted a wood-cut font for us that I'll be using to make the sign. The first step was to print out some templates and trace them onto some stainless steel sheet stock:
I've used a plasma cutter before, but it has been a few years. I made the Handlebar sign using a CAD-controlled cutting table at the great welding class at Evanston Township High School (classes start 3/25!). That sign had lots of intricate detail and the cutter gave nice clean results on the thin materials I used. This time, I'm going for a little rougher look and am using thicker material. With plasma cutting, the quality of the cut is related to your amperage, how fast you cut and the thickness of the piece. Use lots of juice and cut slow and you end up with pretty results. Use a lower voltage machine like I got on thicker material and you end up with a nasty looking kerf:
After a few sample passes, the cutter was easy to use and the hardest part was trying to see the line of my template with the welding mask on. Unlike TIG welding in which the arc tends to light up the piece you are working on, the cutter spits its arc and sparks through the piece.
So what is a pirate's favorite beer?
PB-Arrrrrgh!