It’s not often we do multiples of any sign but the golf and park require a whole bunch of these signs – twenty eight in all. Like the rest of the signs in the park they will be dimensional.

The fourteen entrance and exit signs were cleaned up with a die grinder and then the edges received their edge grains using the same tool. The screw holes were then filled with sculpting epoxy and blended into the backgrounds.

At this point the 1″ x 1″ metal square tubing that stuck out of the back of each sign was trimmed to length and then welded to the post armatures we had built for this purpose. These armatures will all receive a skin of fiberglass reinforced concrete that will be carved to look like bamboo.

 To provide a seamless experience for the guests of the park most of the signs will be dimensional. This includes some normally mundane entrance and exit signs for the rides and attractions. The ‘sandblasted wood’ signs will have raised, prismatic letters in a cartoon font that matches the park logo. As always it starts with the vectors.

I used the outlines of the sign to create a flat relief.

I then used the sandblasted woodgrain bitmap to add some texture.

The lettering outlines were built as separate flat reliefs and then merged to the background  relief.

 Lastly I modified the background relief by added the bevel lettering.

There were seven of each sign plus their backs to route and they would have filled an entire 4 x 8 sheet of Precision Board. But There always seem to be an abundance of smaller pieces left over from other projects so I took a little extra time and used them instead. The next shot is of the signs glued up and ready for a little hand work with the die grinder. An hour of work will get them all ready for the paint crew.

The ride signs have taken a while to finish as they were worked on between other projects. Today the Pieces of Eight and Crow’s Nest signs got their finishing touches at last.

We are slowly working our way through a big list of signs for Skallywag Bay. The next major sign on the list is for the adventure golf. The routed signs are actually the smaller portion of the project. Just the same the main sign was both challenging and fun.

The first task was to commit the design to vectors.

The spindles/handles of the ships wheel were created using the dome tool.

The rim of the wheel was next, once again using the dome tool but fairly flat.

The last step of the wheel was the flat center piece.

I then merged all the pieces of the wheel together. After the rest of the sign vectors were built I would adjust the height to make sure it wasn’t higher than the sign board.

The sign board was the next piece to be created as flat relief.

The warped woodgrain bitmap was imported and applied to the flat board relief.

At this point I merged the wheel and the sign board onto a zero height flat relief. I then duplicated the relief and flipped the copy. This would be routed to form the back of the sign.

The front section of the sign then would get the lettering, starting with the letting outline. This outline was built as a separate relief. I next would position those reliefs over the woodgrain merge them with the sign board.

The main lettering was created using the bevel tool.

The smaller lettering was created using the dome tool.

With the last of the lettering in place I could then tool path the file and send it off to the MultiCam. As usual the pieces would be cut from 30 lb Precision Board. I set the machine in motion and went on to the other work.

 I first used the extrude function to create a mesh object.

 Then I used the teardrop vector to create the body of the KRAKEN. I then flattened out the sub body in the front view and sized and positioned the conning tower (mesh) to fit.

I created a zero height relief and then merged the mesh to it.

At this point I realized that I had made the square zero height relief too small to encompass the submarine body. I backed up one step and stretched the zero height relief and then merged the mesh once more. Then after deleting the original relief I merged (highest) this relief with the sub shape. Take note of how I positioned the flat relief to effectively cut off the front of the teardrop shape.

This is the resulting relief of that operation.

Next up is the slice, where we’ll create the layers that will fit inside the Precision Board we are routing it form. Since we are using 1.5″ thick material the sub was sliced four times.

The engine halves were created using an oval vector and the dome tool. Then I created a zero height rectangle under it. By merging highest with this rectangle I would slice the ends off the egg.

I duplicated this shape flipped the copy and then duplicated the two pieces. Four halves would make two engines.

Then it was time for the lifesaver/sign. I use the dome tool to create the basic shape.

The lettering was added using the add to command and the flat relief tool.

The four pieces necessary for one half of the sub were duplicated and flipped. Then everything was arranged to fit on a 48″ x 96″ sheet of Precision Board.

I created one more piece for the sign – the middle layer that would house the welded steel frame. The weird shape opening is to allow me to cut steel with a 45 degree cut on one end and then be a random length (with a square cut on the other. This meant I didn’t have to be precise with my cuts and this sped up the building process.