Laying on the paint

Today was spent largely laying primer and base coats on a whole lot of small routed pieces in the shop. This stage of our projects is the least spectacular but time consuming none-the-less. The small shady rest sign got the most color with the foliage receiving one glaze with more to come. This sign will come together quickly as I work my way down.
Tomorrow we’ll show a lot more progress as it comes together.
-dan

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

Day of rest

Today, I finished the sculpting on the Shady Rest sign. It was fun to add all the small details such as his wiggly toes, his big belly and the had pulled down low over his eyes. This guy is out for the count. A bunny sneaks up below – not worried by the fellow sleeping overhead. 
The sculpted tree foliage was a first for me and I was pleased with the result.
Now it is on to paint. Stay tuned…
-dan

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

Working in the dark

Yesterday, in the early afternoon, when I went up the road to get some small supplies from the local hardware store we noticed some smoke coming from a neighboring building. The fire department was called but before they even arrived the fire was well out of control. The flames were so high they engulfed the power and telephone lines putting all of Yarrow out of commission for the day. Power was restored before long but the internet was out into the night.

This morning things were back to normal but around nine thirty it went black once more. A fire at a local electrical substation knocked power out for thirty thousand homes and businesses in the area. Thankfully I didn’t lose any computer work nor did I have the router running but we did already have a good amount of epoxy mixed so we pressed on with our work in the semi darkness of the shop.
Around noon we headed into the Fox & Hounds Pub to do the last of the touchup painting there. Tomorrow things will hopefully go smoother in the shop. Stay tuned…
-dan

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

Built to last

Then it was time to take the routered pieces of Precision Board off the MultiCam and make them into a sign.
 I used the center pieces of the sign as a jig to hold things nice and steady I cut short lengths of 1″ x 1″ steel tubing to length, approximating the angles by eye. The beauty of welding is that small gaps are easily remedied with a MIG welder.
 The welding only took a few minutes. It created an extremely strong frame that will be laminated inside the 30 lb Precision Board sign.
A few seconds of grinding on each side flattened the welds to make the welded metal pieces fit nice and flush into the sign.
I also bent up an welded some 5/8″ solid steel rods on each side. these would form the armature for the trees. I cut a small slot in each side of the sign with my air powered die grinder to make room for them.
Then I used Coastal Enterprises  PB BOND-240 one part glue to hold everything together. I clamped things up tight as the glue expands as it cures. I left it clamped overnight.
The net morning it was time for a little more welding. I used up a bunch of short pieces of 1.5″ x 1.5″ square tubing which I save for this kind of job. THe triangle tubing which sticks out of the bottom of the sign was leveled up and welded into the top of the new steel. I then used some 1/4″ steel pencil rod to form the hammock, tree branches and also to create a framework for the thicker bottom of the support branch. the Abracadabra Sculpt will be formed around these sturdy supports.
Now we are on to the sculpting phase of the project. My two helpers are in the next couple of days and it should go pretty quick. Stay tuned…
-dan

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

A change is as good as a rest.

We don’t do a lot of residential and cabin signs but when we do I enjoy them. In this case the owner’s wanted something playful that reflected their relaxed time at their cottage. After some discussion we decided a fellow asleep in his hammock was the perfect image. The trees leaning inward under the weight of the sleeping fellow was a humorous twist. The chicken was added as an afterthought. After the drawing was done he was changed to a bunny. I never bothered changing the drawing but the final sculpt will include a rabbit.  This project would be a combination of routed 30 lb Precision Board, welded steel (to make it good and strong) and some Abracadabra Sculpt.
The entire project routing file was designed in EnRoute. The first step was the vectors. The font called ‘Quickdraw’ is one I made some time ago, available at Letterhead Fonts  I bounced the letters around a bit to make it fun.
I added an outline around the letters and then duplicated the file. Only the outline was flipped to make it a double sided sign. The two sides of the sign were from 1.5″ HDU. I made up one more copy of the outline to be routed as an extra layer to make the sign extra thick. This would be cut from 1″ thick Precision Board.
I I then made up a triangle of 1.1″ thick rectangles. This would be routed out to allow a welded steel frame to be embedded into the sign as a holder and reinforcement.
I positioned the merged triangle and then used the jigsaw tool to create new vectors which I would use as a cutting guide.
Then it was time to start in on building the relief. I built a flat relief and then added the raised lettering outline.
Then I modified the relief one more time by adding slightly domed letters.
On looking at the file I decided the holes or the steel were too close together to I went back a couple of steps and redid the triangle, making it larger. This allowed more of the triangle to hang out of the bottom of the sign..
Then I used the jigsaw tool once more to create the vectors I needed to make the outline I wanted, deleting the old ones.
The sign was now ready for tool pathing and ready to send to the MultiCam.
 Next time I’ll show how I welded up the frame and made the sun ready for sculpting and paint. Stay tuned…
-dan

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