Project Highlight - Alvin's Jazz Club Saxophone Production Process

Not only do we offer our top-of-the-line CNC automation machines to our clients, but we also

use them ourselves to build orders that our clients request us to do! Alvin’s Jazz Club

commissioned us to produce this flashy entrance piece. We were tasked with creating a 3D

bronze rendition of an alto saxophone along with their club banner to be placed in front of

the entrance. As always, we treat all of our client's requests with urgency and theirs was especially time-constrained. With a short time to turn over our project, we set out to bring our team together for a collective effort while ensuring no loss of quality from start to finish.

We opted to use a combination of foam and metal elements as foam is easy to produce but

needs extra support from hard beams. Metal was used for parts like the keys of the

saxophone, key posts, and guards around the club banner. Metallic posts were also used to

mount to the base plate which elevated the 3D piece and provided stabilization to the entire

structure.

We used many of our machines for this job. First, we looked to cut out blocks for our

saxophone parts in foam with FROGWire™. The hot wire foam cutter is highly efficient and

slices smoothly when cutting large starting materials into small, workable blocks. To add

detail to our small blocks, we used our 4-axis CNC foam carver router, the FROGMill™. Milling machines can be easily coded to automate all the processes, leaving us to immediately start our detailing of the metallic parts.

Before the metallic pieces are attached to finish our construction, we must apply a finish to

our foam. By priming the foam surface and coating it with a protective layer, it allows for the

sealing of all surface pores of the foam, preparing it for final treatment. Then it is time for

sanding and more priming to generate the smooth texture worthy of a top coat finish. The

top coat is applied with FROGSkin™, FROG3D®’s industrial strength plural component electric

spray system with which a thick coating of urethane is applied evenly to the 3D saxophone

assembly as well as the letters themselves. The metallic look is classic and eye-catching,

allowing for easy attraction from all passerby’s.

As it is an outside display, the bell of the saxophone was not hollowed out but remained

closed. We purposely chose to use a slight dip in the bell to prevent any rain or snow from

collecting on the piece itself.

If you have questions or are curious about FROG3D®’s other projects, feel free to check out our website for more unique and extravagant pieces that were created by our clients. If you’re

looking to start your own project and are looking for tools and equipment, we’re more than

glad to help point you in the right direction in regards to materials and systems that will

benefit you the most. Work with us today!