Blogs
3-D Sign Samples: Let Your Work Speak For Itself!
Take a look at this beautiful 3-d sign sample made by Vamp Graphics in Holtsville, NY. Owner Adam Mooney CNC routed the sign out of Precision Board Plus PBLT-30 HDU and painted it with Modern Masters to highlight Vamp Graphics 3-d capability to shop visitors. Making a...
How Well Do Precision Board & West System Epoxy Work Together?
"As good as the 15 lb. board performed,the 30 lb. board surpassed all my expectations. Shown here is the 30 lb. board holding 160 lbs. – which is all the weight I had on hand! No failure at all." -Bruce Niederer, Technical Advisor/Chemist, West System That's an...
Flip side
Generally most sign shops don’t worry much about the back side of signs that they make. At most the back side might get a coat of primer and occasionally a matching color to the front. We take a different approach.
Eureka!
Quite some time ago I started a sample sign project. Here’s the link. But then we got busy. It has sat in the corner gathering dust ever since. But good ideas can’t stay dormant forever.
Painting techniques and tricks
When I design and route our projects I always have our painting process in mind from the very start. By far the single most labor intensive part of our projects is the paint. For starters we brush paint our pieces rather than spraying.
Univ. of Michigan’s Solar Car Down Under
Check out these pictures of the University of Michigan Solar Car "Generation", at the World Solar Challenge in Australia. All photos courtesy of UM Solar. Coastal Enterprises is a proud sponsor of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team.
Painting process
The painting of our signs and features almost always follows the same steps and order. If we decide to prime the 30 lb Precision Board it is because the want to add a little more texture. The 30 lb board doesn’t need primer to fill the pinholes or roughness normally found in lighter densities. We use the FSC-88WB primer made by Coastal Enterprises, the same folks that make the board. While most shops use primer to smooth out the work and sand it to make sure we use the heavy bodied primer to ADD texture.
Look mom! No Hands!
Could your car someday save you from an accident, warn you about road closures and bypass traffic? According to this recent article by The Guardian, it could. Driverless cars are coming, and fast. California, Florida, Nevada and Michigan already allow for the testing...
Ready to roll
With a large crew both in the shop and up at the worksite much of my days are spent organizing and helping crew. In between I spend a few minutes at a time doing the projects I need to do. It took me two days to complete the hand carving of the woodgrain on the wagon wheel sign. I used an air powered die grinder to remove the excess glue, get rid of the uneven edges and carve in the heavy woodgrain.