Building a train – part 16

I posted pictures and a small writeup of the log car that would accompany the steam locomotive on the Whistle Punk Hollow Adventure Golf project. That article covered creating and routing the face of the log which would act as a giant sign. Around that we welded up a framework of quarter inch thick steel bar, then attached expanded lath to that framework. Over this we troweled on a thick coat of fibreglass reinforced concrete and then as it dried carved in the woodgrain and bark textures. This was allowed to cure for a few days.

We then primed the Precision Board face of the sign with FSC-88 WB primer. This too was allowed to cure before we began painting the log with two base coats of acrylic paint. 
We then applied a couple of coats of darker brown glazes. wiping off the excess and leaving the crevices dark.
The lettering was painted and then all of the undercarriage assembled. Today was the time at last to drag the piece from the shop and load it onto the trailer in readiness to transport to the site.

We transported the locomotive last week. As always the journey was fun!

Stay tuned for more instalments…
-dan

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Assembling the pieces

As I sorted and transferred my old files to a new computer this past week I put all of the router files I had created for the new house in one place. I was surprised to see that there were more than 200 files so far. I haven’t figured out how many pieces we have routed but it is many times the two hundred files.

This past week we began installation of the big crown moldings we made a while back. The backs were first hollowed out to accommodate the Heico LED modules. The moldings looked very cool as they were installed.

It took lots of imagination to figure out how to transition the various wall components. Now the wainscot, window trim and upper crown moldings.
We have also finished painting the samples that show the various colors.

I couldn’t resist installing a few of the LED’s into place to see how it would look at night when it is done.

The butterfly theme continues on the door corner blocks as well.

 The many pieces are quickly coming together in the house. It is just a matter of weeks now until we will move in at last!

-dan

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Going to ISA!

Next week is the International Sign Association show in Las Vegas. It is the largest sign show in the world with more than 20,000 attendees. I’ll be there once more at the MultiCam booth. They will have a place for me to speak and a MultiCam 3000 series router, very similar to the one I use in my shop. I’ll be talking about the many cool projects we’ve done on the machine and showing pictures too. I’ll also be showing how I create our files in EnRoute and I’ll be firing up the MultiCam there to actually create some cool stuff.

The little green truck we built last week will be on display at the Coastal Enterprises booth.
If you are at the show please drop by and say hi!
-dan

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Lasso another

Don’s name plaque employs a variety of techniques.  I started with a dome relief, then modified it by adding a raised center. I used an enlarged sandblasted woodgrain bitmap from the TEXTURE MAGIC collection to add a cool texture to the piece.

Then I built a cross section of rope which we would use for a border.

To create the rope I used the extrude command to make a mesh file. I just followed the prompts.

I went into the front view and nudged the mesh vertically until it looked good. Then I selected both the mesh and relief which allowed me to access the menu at would merge the two types of files.

I then created a flat relief of the letter outlines. This relief was modified with a dome shape (to match the woodgrain relief) by using the circle vector I had used to create the relief.

Once gain I went to the front view to nudge the relief vertically and then MERGED HIGHEST to the base relief.

Then I raised the lettering by modifying the base relief.

I thought it looked a little plain and so I imported the splotches bitmap and added a little texture to just the letters.

The file was now ready for tool pathing and then was sent to the MultiCam. It was machined from 1.5″ thick 30 lb Precision Board.
-dan

Published with permission from precisionboard.blogspot.com. Source.

Sign Artistry For An Artist!

Take a look at this awesome sign made by Vamp Graphics! According to owner Adam Mooney, this sign was CNC routed from Precision Board Plus PBLT-18 HDU. The large globs of paint on the artist’s palette were formed using TSF-45, and the sign was painted using a combination of Valspar Duramax and Modern Masters Paints.

This isn’t the first great-looking sign we have seen from Vamp Graphics. Be sure to also take a look at his in-shop sign “The Vampire’s Lair”, and its build process in our previous blog: Enter The Vampire’s Lair.

More info can be seen on Adam’s website at: http://www.vampgraphics.com.

HnAn3d copy