Xpressive graphiX: Lighting up the Sign Industry with LED Part 1

Have you ever wondered about the advantage of using Precision Board HDU with LED?  According to Xpressive graphiX in Zanesville, Ohio, you can get far more creative with Precision Board versus a standard aluminum cabinet.  Push-through letters can always be added, but it will be extremely hard to get something dimensional.  The advantage of using HDU over a metal cabinet is that textures and dimensional elements can be added. To get more information and design tips, we talked to Xpressive graphiX partners David Mattingly and Tony Rose. Their company has designed and fabricated some award-winning illuminated signs using Precision Board HDU and LED components.  Tony gave us the lowdown on a recent LED project they completed using Precision Board.

LED on HDU

This part of Russo’s pizza paddle sign is 8′ x 8′ and 20′ tall when fully installed.

Russo’s Wood Fired Pizza contacted Xpressive graphiX to design their graphics, including logo, menu boards, wall wraps, and signage. They created three different dimensional signs, including two exterior (one on the building, one on a pole by the street) and one interior. This business is on a main street and wanted a 3D illuminated sign to really stand out and draw customers in. Another challenge was that the sign needed to be built over the existing structure of the sign for the previous business. Tony created a giant wooden pizza paddle design based on the size of the pole and kept it within the square footage of the previous sign at 20′ tall and 8′ wide. They left the existing structure, but cut the cabinet off at the top and used PBLT-15 as a skin on the front.

“We built a square cabinet and covered it in Precision Board to get the shape of the paddle. To get it to fit over the pole we had to make it sixteen inches deep. We mounted aluminum to the steel structure and then machined acrylic brackets for each letter and added them as mounts for the letters,” Tony said.

The lettering on the logo is white acrylic. The center logo looks like a cattle brand burned into the paddle, and at night, the center glows orange.

Xpressive graphiX also designed an exterior wall sign for the building, using cantilevered barn style lights. The sign was built on a frame with a smaller pizza paddle and backlit with glowing LED lights.

We here at Coastal Enterprises think these signs are incredibly creative and appreciate the work of Tony and his team. Xpressive graphiX is a full service sign company specializing in all aspects of strategic visual communication. If you’re looking for creative dimensional signage using Precision Board HDU and LED lighting, give David and Tony a call at 740-452-6804 or visit their website at www.xpressivegraphix.com to see the other types of sign work they offer.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks when we highlight another amazing LED project from Xpressive graphiX using Precision Board HDU.

Rennovations part 2

Today I was able to slip in some programming for the entryway renovations. Here you see the beginnings of the badges that will adorn the centers of the overheads in the previous post. Enroute is an amazing tool for building 3D objects just like this. Typically we brainstorm and idea then make it happen. Today I am thankful for powerful tools and know how to use them…

Fan blades and gears…. These things are going to look amazing!!!!

Stay tuned as we start painting the beams and overhead elements along with install in the coming weeks.

-Jim

Published with permission from Synergy Sign & Graphics. Source.

Posts with a theme

We used a heart motif as a theme on our house. Little hearts are routed into all of the outside trim. We created hundreds of files and then machined even more pieces. These were all painted up and gazed to form a one of a kind house which we really enjoy.

This same theme extends out to the fence posts as well. The panels were all designed in EnRoute and then cut from 30 lb Precision Board on our MultiCam. Amazingly we went through more than a hundred sheets of 1″ thick board to do the inside and outside of the house.

The east side of the house has no windows as it is closest to our neighbours. It’s a big wall and the ground is lowest in this area. The rock ‘wainscot’ is the same height as the rest of the house but is about six feet tall in this area. To dress it up we built pillars about every eight feet. Into Each pillar we set a panel featuring the hearts motif. We painted it up to match the rock work and to look like it was carved in stone

When we located Becke’s modular home on the property regulations and a sloping property again mandated a tall wall on one side of the trailer. Like the house we brought the ground up about three feet on this side but there is still a lot of wall showing. The blue siding will be brought down over the skirting with rock work covering the concrete foundation. The pillars will extend from the ground to the top of the skirting. We will again locate the pillars approximately eight feet apart to match the house.

The forms for the pillars were built from pressure treated 3/4″ thick plywood. The area below the plywood will be extended with welded steel pencil rod. Galvanized lath will be fastened on before we do our hand sculpting of the rocks.

Becke got to pick the theme for her house and because she is an avid birder she picked birds of course. Peter designed two different sized panels. It is a simple silhouette of birds on a branch. He laid a woodgrain texture over the entire panel. I’ll post more pictures of the progress as we proceed.

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

A long time coming!

Four years ago we started an exciting project. It’s a theme park in Trinidad called Skallywag Bay Adventure Park. Three of the rides in the park were to be built in Italy. They are off the shelf rides which we mildly customized to fit the theme of the park.

One of the rides is a spinning coaster called “Pieces of Eight”. The track is a figure eight which loops over itself. We picked custom colours and enlarged one of the loops so we could locate a spinning tower drop ride inside. We also designed some custom cars for the coaster. In order to keep costs in check we could not change the size of the car, change the seats nor the mechanics of the car. I did some concept art up to show them what we wanted.

We also routed up a master of the Piece of Eight medallion we wanted placed on the side of the coaster. This master was cut on our router from 30 lb Precision Board.
As they built the prototype of the car they sent us photos which we would mark up with notes. After some back and forth we signed off on the design and they built the coaster.  When they finished it the ride was assembled and tested before they packed it up into a shipping container and sent it on to Trinidad.
Construction of projects in Trinidad takes a little longer than we are used to in our part of the world and so the ride sat in the container for the better part of two years while the infrastructure f the park was built. This past week it was finally time to pull the ride from the containers and begin assembly.
It was with great delight I finally pulled off the wraps to get a first hand look at the ride we had designed so long ago.

The ride wasn’t quite assembled when I left but things were coming along nicely. Soon I’ll get my test ride!

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

Custom Bonded Blocks Saves You Time = Money

Wouldn’t it be great to save yourself time and money on that bonded block and have it delivered, ready to machine?  Precision Board custom-bonded blocks are designed from the ground up to save you time, material, and money.  All we need is an isometric drawing to provide a quote.  Our skilled production team can assemble complex step tools of any size, any thickness, and any density.  We deliver your custom bonded block directly to you so that you can start machining right away.

custom bonded blocks

For our proprietary bonding method, we use our own EP-76 epoxy adhesive filled with our PB Granules to match the material density, resulting in very tight and strong bond lines that are almost imperceptible.  These bond lines provide smooth machining throughout the finished tool.

We cut the sheets to size, carefully bond them together, and ship the assembled bonded block directly to you. This means you can start machining as soon as it arrives, instead of wasting days or even weeks bonding it yourself.

custom bonded blocks

The Aerospace and Automotive industries have relied on us for years to bond custom Precision Board Plus blocks for their unique tooling needs.  There’s virtually no limit on the size of blocks we can bond. We’ve built and shipped some truly massive tooling blocks for customers around the world. Rely on our bonding expertise to get a near net-shaped block ready for you to machine in the time frame you need.

custom bonded blocks

Get started on your next project today! We have a large inventory of densities for fast turnaround times, and a highly skilled production team to turn your idea into reality. Contact us for a quote on your own custom bonded Precision Board block.