Back in April I created the first routing files for the Skallywag Bay. Now at last it is time to fire up the MultiCam and get going on these projects. Todays sign was for Cookie’s Galley, the food establishment for the park. It will feature Cookie of course the Gruffle cook.

 The face of the sign was then screwed together. Here it is with the head placed roughly where it will go. Once I do the final shaping on the edges of the sign we can dowel and glue it into position permanently.

Then it will be time for paint.

-dan

Once the MultiCam had done it’s work it was time to assemble the pieces over the welded frame.  I first used the air house to blow off the dust from the Precision Board. I used PB Bond 240 glue a one part product that is activated with water moisture. It’s made by the folks at Coastal Enterprises, the same people who make Precision Board. I spread a layer over the back of the sign, aligned the middle to it and then screwed then together. I’m told it isn’t necessary to screw the pieces, only clamps but I like the extra insurance the screw offer. I countersunk the heads of the screws and we’ll fill in the holes before we begin painting. I then positioned the sign over the sign frame. Here’s the back view of the sign.

The front view of the sign (without the front of the sign) shows how the pieces fit over the frame. I then spread a layer of glue over the reverse side of the front piece and aligned it with the other pieces. A few more screws finished the assembly.

Before we begin the painting process I’ll use a die grinder to texture the edges of the driftwood sign by hand. Then I’ll use some sculpting epoxy to create a stack of gold coins and perhaps a string of pearls on the top. We’ll sculpt the fiberglass reinforced concrete tree branch right up to the sign as well.

After creating the lettering and tweaking it to my satisfaction it was on to making the reliefs. I first opened my driftwood bitmap from the TEXTURE MAGIC COLLECTION.  In EnRoute the imported bitmap opens as defined by the plate.

I then stretched it out to make the shape I desired. I then used the drawing tool to create the jagged outline I wanted for the sign.

I then selected the vector shape and used the dome tool to create a relief. When you use the dome tool on an irregular shape it doesn’t come out perfectly smooth. Since this would be a rough piece of driftwood that was perfectly OK.

I then applied the bitmap to the relief.

I then duplicated the relief three times, flipping the center one to make the back of the sign. The top one I  took back to a vector outline as it would be a offset cut to create the center portion of the sign.

Then it was on to creating the letters for the sign. I started with the outside border, creating a flat relief. This was positioned vertically and then merged highest with the original relief.

Now I modified this relief by first adding the next letter bordering.

The last step was to modify the relief one more time by adding the bevelled letters. I used the constant height option.

With that the file was ready to tool path and then send to the MultiCam.

Then we began tweaking all of the letters. In version 5 of EnRoute we can distort the vectors easily using this tool. In the next four pictures they show the process as I went through the process twice to get the effect I wanted. The lettering was now much more fun but still very readable.

Then using the outline tool I created a double border around the letters. The outside border is a little wider than the first.