The Secret to Creating a Neat Glued Joint on Precision Board

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to announce a series of guest blogs written by Dan Sawatzky of Imagination Corporation, which are posted on the Precision Board Blog each month. This month Dan Sawatzky lets us in on a little secret of his when it comes to gluing Precision Board HDU- when he wants a smooth bond-line, he’ll glue the pieces together first and then rout the material.  He gives us an example from his latest project- The Hazelnut Inn fantasy suites.

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In Dan Sawatzky’s own words…

A comment I often hear is how layers of glued Precision Board need a lot of edge finishing prior to paint. When folks use PB Bond 240 or PB Fast Set it often squishes out between the layers as it cures. In our work this isn’t often a problem as we texture the edges of our work, most often with an air powered die grinder. It is quick work and adds a lot of value to the finished piece.

But occasionally we need a neat glue joint as we layer up the Precision Board within the edges of our work. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to glue up the board before we do the routing. It’s a great way to use up smaller pieces of Precision Board and it saves using a whole thick board and turning the bulk of it to chips and dust.

Precision Board also offers custom cut and glued up blocks for your larger projects!

I have a small project in the works that is a great example. It’s a tribal mask for the Hazelnut Inn decor. I went through our scrap pile and selected three pieces of 1” thick material, making sure they were slightly larger than necessary. I then glued and screwed them together. Because the top layers were a bunch smaller than the bottom, the clamps wouldn’t reach. Once the piece had cured, I removed the screws (hitting a screw with a router bit is rather hard on bits).

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I threw the piece on our MultiCam 3000 CNC router and ran the job in two passes using a 3/8” bit for the rough and a 1/8” tapered bit for the final.

When the piece was finished I glued a fourth layer of 1” thick Precision Board underneath for extra thickness.

I then used our air-powered die grinder to extend the woodgrain down onto the edges. The piece was now ready for paint.

I measured up some rope we had left over from a recent project and then drilled the bottom edge with a series of holes. These were to accept the rope segments for the beard. I used hot glue to fasten them into place.

I then applied the glazes to bring out the woodgrain. Then the green, red, orange and white was carefully dry brushed on the ridges of the woodgrain. Then I unfurled the ropes and spread out the single strands to form the beard on the mask. The final result looked better than I imagined when I did the design! Some mounting hardware will make the mask ready to hang in the room.

Local lore holds that the North Star Suite of the Hazelnut Inn was once the home of an eccentric explorer, who gathered artifacts and curiosities from every mythical corner of the world and built her estate around them. There will be a whole bunch of ‘artifacts’ of every description on display in the room when we are done. Here’s another piece which we recently completed. The mounting board is made from 30 lb Precision Board.  Stay tuned for many more…

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Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation is a small family company that specializes in the design and creation of dimensional signs and environments. They tackle projects of any size from small signs to entire theme parks. Their work has garnered numerous national and international awards.

Dan Sawatzky is best described as a creative force and visual storyteller extraordinaire. His art career spans almost fifty years of magic. Dan’s passion is to design and create imaginative places that take people from the normal world to a setting of delight and wonder.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board HDU, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane sign material that is particularly effective for making professional-looking indoor and outdoor dimensional signs.  It is a closed-cell rigid substrate that does not rot, warp or crack.  You can request free samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

Fabricating the Amish Country Sign with Precision Board, Steel & Concrete

When Jim Dawson with Synergy Sign was asked to design and install a sign for his client’s new luxury hotel, event center and Amish Country Theater complex, he knew it had to be big enough to draw attention from nearby State Route 39. At 24’x24’x4′, the Amish Country sign ended up being the largest sign Dawson had ever built.  He used steel, concrete and Precision Board HDU to accomplish this huge task.  Read on to find out how Jim and the team at Synergy Sign constructed the Precision Board HDU part of this behemoth sign.

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Six signs in total were routed from PBLT-18 Precision Board HDU, with three for each side of the frame.  Two signs were 4’x14’x1″ and one was 3’x14’x1″.  Jim routed wood grain texture into the signs and then made a 45 degree bevel around the letters to give the illusion that they were popping out. The Amish Country green background was done with a second layer of 1” thick Precision Board.

Jim and his team created galvanized steel boxes that were 6″ wide and screwed and glued the Precision Board signs to both sides. He used the same steel beams and fabricated mounts for the LED sign.

Dawson says, “the bands on the posts that look like steel straps were actually made out of PBLT-30 Precision Board.”  He adds, “giant oversize rivets were cut into a dome on the router and we used 4 inch thick PBLT-18. Then we made them faceted by grinding them into the surface with our sanding bench.”  Jim attached the rivets to the “steel straps” to complete the look.

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Dawson used several different paints for this job, including Novacolor metallic paints for the straps, Sherwin Williams on the concrete and Kemiko paint on the sign faces.

Design to completion on the Amish Country sign was six months with about three days of routing time for the Precision Board HDU on their MultiCam 3000 CNC using X-Edge router bits.  Jim says, “we had twelve 4’x8′ sheets of Precision Board that would have needed to be carved.  Because it would have taken 15-16 hours per sheet to carve in 3d, we instead used the Rapid Texture feature in our Enroute Software.” (Ed note: You can read more about Rapid Texture HERE) Jim says it made sense to do it that way given that the texture didn’t need to be super detailed, it just had to look good from a distance.

Jim wrote a lengthier article for the October issue of Signs of the Times detailing the entire fabrication process, including creating the steel posts. That article can be read HERE.

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We think that Jim Dawson and his team do some really excellent work. Synergy Sign & Graphics has a highly experienced staff whose backgrounds include graphic design, marketing, trade-show design, print media, branding, point of purchase design, fulfillment, and more. Check out their website or give them a call at (330) 878-7646 to see about your next project!

Coastal Enterprises offers free samples of Precision Board HDU.  Already have a project in mind for our material?  Request a quote and get started today.  Sign up for our monthly blog roundup so you don’t miss any of our informative blogs.  Have a special project fabricated with Precision Board HDU and want to know if it could be featured in a blog on our website?  Give us a call at 800-845-0745 or drop us an email with details.  We’d love to hear from you!

You can view a wide selection of in-process photos below from Synergy Sign’s fabrication of the Amish Country sign.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”24″ gal_title=”Amish Country”]

Get a Sneak Peek at Sawatzky’s 2019 Sign Invitational Entry

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to announce a series of guest blogs written by Dan Sawatzky of Imagination Corporation, which will be posted on the Precision Board Blog each month. This month Dan Sawatzky tells us why he has already started building not only his entry for the 2019 Sign Invitational, held at the ISA EXPO, but the Sawatzky special creation that will be on display in the Coastal Enterprises booth.  As the defending champion of the 2018 Sign Invitational, Dan knows he needs to bring his best game to compete, but at the same time he wants to encourage healthy competition.  Sawatzky uses a variety of materials to build his entries, including PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU.

In Dan Sawatzky’s own words….

As the defending champion (two times over) of the Sign Invitational at the ISA EXPO I feel I will really have to play my ‘A’ game to be a serious contender in the 2019, Las Vegas edition of the show to be held April 24-26 . It’s my plan to give all comers a serious run for their money!

There are two categories this coming year. One will feature entries of the same dimensions as previous Invitational pieces. 2’ x 2’ x 6’ tall. The theme is ‘TIME’.  The second category is a tabletop or wall mount version measuring 3’ x 3’ x ?. The theme is the same as the big category.

I’m hard at work on an entry for both categories (of course).  The big piece will be shown in the Signs of the Times booth along with all of the other entries. My smaller entry will be shown in the Precision Board (Coastal Enterprises) booth. Coastal Enterprises has been a wonderful sponsor from the beginning of the contest which started four years ago.

While most of the competitors are keeping a tight wrap on their designs and build, I like to share my progress from the start in the hope that it will encourage others to build a showpiece of their own. While winning the trophy is cool, the primary purpose of the contest is to showcase the fun projects we can build in our studios. Samples sell great work.

The large piece I am building is called Timekeeper’s factory. Its a tall (and slightly wonky) factory, complete with a steam plant, delivery vehicles and a host of other small details which abound on the piece. While I’ve made great progress so far, there is a host of details yet to add to ensure the story is told well.

The smaller piece will be called ‘Turning back time’. It is a detailed look at the inner workings of a steam powered clock. I’ve made good progress on the basic clockworks but there are many details and surprises yet to come.

Both pieces will have a whole lot to look at, with many visual puns throughout.

The Sign Invitational entries showcase how we use various materials, including Precision Board and companion products. I can hardly wait to see how the attendees of the ISA show react to these two and the other entries as well. It promises to be a great show.

There is still room for more entries but the deadline for the Sign Invitational is quickly approaching. For more information go to www.signinvitational.com.

Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation is a small family company that specializes in the design and creation of dimensional signs and environments. They tackle projects of any size from small signs to entire theme parks. Their work has garnered numerous national and international awards.

Dan Sawatzky is best described as a creative force and visual storyteller extraordinaire. His art career spans almost fifty years of magic. Dan’s passion is to design and create imaginative places that take people from the normal world to a setting of delight and wonder.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board HDU, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane sign material that is particularly effective for making professional-looking indoor and outdoor dimensional signs.  It is a closed-cell rigid substrate that does not rot, warp or crack.  You can request free samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

Welcome to the new PrecisionBoard.com!

The PrecisionBoard.com Website Has Been Redesigned!

precisionboard.com

New landing pages for Signage & Tooling Applications.

“We know that time is money,” said Chuck Miller, President of Coastal Enterprises, “so we simplified the home page with buttons for the most popular Precision Board HDU applications- tooling and signage.”  He added, “now you can quickly access resources and find what you need faster.”

While the look of the PrecisionBoard.com website is more modern and updated, the same great content is there, including speeds & feeds settings, training videos on use of our companion products (primer, adhesives, coatings, etc.), how-to’s, FAQs, and the Precision Board Blog.

Additionally, the PrecisionBoard.com website now has:

Precision Board HDU is a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly high-density polyurethane. It is a closed-cell rigid substrate that does not rot, warp or crack.  Coastal Enterprises has a large inventory, offers quick turnaround of days not weeks and has custom services, including custom-bonding, step tools, layup tools and custom sheet-cutting. Call us today at 800-845-0745 and talk to one of our technical staff to see how we can help you out with your next project!

Let us know what you think of the new site…drop us an email or comment on this post and give us your feedback.  We are constantly working to improve the website user experience and value your thoughts on what’s working and what can be improved.

About Coastal Enterprises: Since 1973 Coastal Enterprises has been an innovator and leading manufacturer of urethane products used for dimensional signage, model making, marine applications and a variety of composite tooling applications. Insist on the HDU trusted by the Aerospace, Composites and Sign Making industries for more than 20 years.  Ask for Precision Board HDU by name.  Request a free sample or quote, watch training videos and more at PrecisionBoard.com.

TBT: A 30″ x 240′ Replica of the Hong Kong Skyline

Throwback Blog to January of 2015 and this very cool replica of the Hong Kong skyline created out of Precision Board HDU and coated with LuminOre, a sprayable metal coating.

Wolfpack Sign Group in Vista, CA is working on a very exciting project for a cultural center located in Hong Kong.  Once complete, it will be 30″ tall  x 240′ in length.

Joseph Parrish, Director of Operations, explained that the customer wanted to reproduce the city skyline, which is quite extensive, in a bronze casting. However, after looking into the cost and weight of casting so much solid bronze, they reached out to their vendors for a creative solution.

Utilizing Precision Board Plus PBLT-30 HDU, in sections of 30” x48” and hours of CNC time, they machined a 2” sheet to give it the appearance of much more depth, so it would better replicate the skyline. Once machining was completed, the entire piece was coated in LuminOre, sprayable metal coating, and polished.

“We were very pleased with how easy the Precision Board was to machine, and the tremendous customer service in working with us and LuminOre to get the process methods worked out.” Says Joseph.

“We are very glad to have had such a solid partner on this exciting, creative project!”

(Editor’s Note 2018: Wolfpack Sign Group may no longer be in business) To see additional work that Wolfpack Sign Group offers, please see their web site or give Joseph a call at (760) 736-4500 ext. 206.