Molten Metal Brought To Life In A Canadian Foundry

Behrends is a Canadian foundry and sign shop that has specialized in bronze, aluminum and brass plaques since 1952. A recent article in Sign & Digital Graphics showcases their talented processes and end-result creations.

Precision Board Plus plays an important role at Behrends, being utilized whenever they require patterns or finished products that require a high degree of detail and consistency. Other applications include concrete stamps, cast plaques that feature photo sculpts, and cast 3D crests.

This project features Precision Board PBLT-40 that was CNC cut into a pattern for a bronze crest for the Tacoma Police Department. Years ago, Behrends used MDF for these types of patterns, but MDF wasn’t stable enough to retain the levels of detail they needed when cut on the CNC machine, meaning a lot of extra time was spent in the finish stage hand-tooling the final products. Switching to Precision Board Plus alleviated this problem.

Please visit www.behrendsgroup.com to see more of their amazing projects.

Additional information about the bronze casting process can be seen in the Sign & Digital Graphics Article on page 88.

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Click here and navigate to page 88 for a behind the scenes look at Behrends Bronze.

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Searching For The Right Tool On An Interior LED-Lighted Sign

Having the right tool for the job is a pretty important aspect of being a sign maker. Sometimes that tool can cost $10,000 or sometimes it could cost $10. The thing is, when you need it, you need it. Talking with Steve Kolacz, owner of GrafiXhouse Design Studio in Garner, NC, about a recent sign he made, revealed a situation we believe all sign makers can relate to.

Steve’s job was to build an interior sign for a church that could light up at the flip of a switch to let kids know when it was time for them to go into the service. His first step was to design the sign in Adobe Illustrator, followed by selecting the materials he would use for the job: Precision Board, PVC, Dibond and Lexan.

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Each substrate was cut in turn on Steve’s ShopBot CNC machine, and put together with a combination of VHB tape and 3M Epoxy.

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Wedge-Cut Quandary

Needing to make a wedge cut on a piece of Precision Board to create a downward-sloping, faux stoplight, Steve found himself in a tough spot – he couldn’t make the cut with his bandsaw because the piece was too big, and he didn’t want to do it on his CNC machine because that would have meant creating a file and spending much more time than necessary on a piece requiring only a single cut. He even asked his neighbor (which is a custom cabinet shop) next door, the ones with the giant table saw and wood working equipment if they would cut it, but they didn’t want anything to do with it.

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Diagram showing the wedge cut Steve needed to make

Bow Saw To The Rescue

In his own words, “after running out of options, and wanting to get this cut over with, I did a slow look around my shop and saw my bow saw in the corner of my eye. I picked it up, walked over to the table and one-handed cut that wedge no problem. All I needed to do afterwards was sand it smooth with my disc sander. The whole process took about 5 minutes. It would have never worked with wood,” says Kolacz.

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This mid-sign incident, while not catastrophic, really says a lot to us about what it means to be a sign maker – an unforeseen circumstance needing to be remedied by some quick thinking.

Since the stoplight needed to light up so the kids would know it was time to put the blocks down and get ready for some churchin’, Steve wired LED’s into the yellow stoplight housing and covered each opening with a translucent piece of Lexan.

The entire sign was primed with Kilz Latex Primer and painted with a combination of acrylic and enamels, with the “Quest” portion being airbrushed with a Behr Latex paint. All in all, a beautiful multi-media sign!

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Steve Kolacz has owned GrafiXhouse Design Studio since 2002. Additional works of art, signs and illustrations can be seen on his website at: www.grafixhouse.net.

We’ve also featured Steve in two previous articles:

 The Art of Hand-Carved Signs/Grafixhouse Design Studio

3-D HDU Signage: To Rout or Carve?

 

 

Rustic Signmaking With HDU: Glazing A Sign To A Cool Finish

Almost medieval looking, the sign crafted by Synergy Sign & Graphics for Teal Insurance practically looks like it was made with ancient wood and hardened steel. In reality, Synergy used 30lb Precision Board Plus and a combination of other materials to give their sign a rustic, aged look.

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We’ve worked with Synergy Sign & Graphics on several articles now, and one of the nicest things about working with them is that Jim Dawson, the owner, is an amateur photographer and takes excellent photographs documenting his signs every step of the way.

This unique sign began its life in Adobe Illustrator, based off an initial proof provided to him by the customer, before Jim generated a 3-D model with  CAM software.

Screen Shot 2014-06-25 at 3.59.01 PMInitial proof (left) and final Enroute Pro design (right).

Once the design was finalized, Jim’s MultiCam CNC transformed a piece of Precision Board Plus PBLT-30 HDU into the design he made in Enroute.

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Since he sure didn’t want to see this beautiful sign get damaged by the weather or anything else, Jim reinforced the sign with a custom welded steel bracket, sandwiched into a routed slot in between each sign face. Once inserted, the sign faces were laminate bonded together with PB Bond-240, a single part urethane adhesive. A small opening at the top allowed space for eyebolts attached to the inner frame to mount to the faux tree – a simple, yet complex strategy.

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To compliment his sign, and because Synergy Sign & Graphics refuses to make anything run of the mill or standard, Jim designed and built a custom faux tree from which he would mount the sign. The tree’s core was built from a custom-welded piece of steel.

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Using an epoxy clay, Jim added a subtle, yet major touch to the signs appearance. The brackets surrounding the sign would be formed with the epoxy clay, and painted to look like hammered steel.

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A wire mesh frame provided the perfect foundation for the fiberglass reinforced concrete to be applied to and sculpted into a tree and surrounding rocks.

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This sign is a great example of the “jack of all trades” skill set that it takes to make a sign. So far, this project has required welding, CNC machining and masonry, and the finishing steps will include painting and glazing – in short, beautiful signs are a lot of work!

Screen Shot 2014-06-26 at 1.31.54 PMSign primed with FSC-88WB (left), 3 coats of exterior grade latex paint (right).

After priming the sign with FSC-88WB Primer/Filler, and coating with three separate coats of light brown exterior grade paint, it was time to start the glazing process on both the faux tree and actual sign (to see the glazing process, please visit Jim’s blog). Once the three-stage glazing process was complete, the sign was clear coated with exterior grade flat latex clear, resulting in one of the most unique hanging signs we’ve seen!

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The recipients of the Teal Sign stated that it was “More amazing than they could have possibly imagined,” which is a real testament to the skill and craftsmanship of Jim Dawson and the entire crew at Synergy Sign & Graphic! Be sure to visit www.synergysign.com for more information and pictures!

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Custom Tooling Blocks Save Time, Money: Here’s Why

In addition to manufacturing the largest and thickest sheets in the tooling industry, Coastal Enterprises also offers an additional service to our customers: custom-bonded Precision Board tooling blocks.

“Some of the layup tools we made at Skunk Works were absolutely massive, which meant CNC time was a major factor when determining project deadlines.  Coastal’s custom bonded blocks saved us hours on the CNC and ensured we stayed on time and on budget – they are the true gold standard in tooling efficiency.”

– Jon Sharp, former Lockheed Martin employee and air racing legend, on why custom bonded blocks were their go-to choice for large tooling jobs.

Advantages of custom tooling blocks:

  • Save money by using less material
  • Decrease machining time by being closer to net size from the start
  • Arrives ready for immediate machining

With only a rough drawing of your finished part, we will fabricate a custom block that will significantly reduce waste, bonding/laminating time, and reduce time spent machining.

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Save machining time and material cost
By layering the sheets of Precision Board Plus PBLT-40 with just enough excess to accommodate the customers tool design, we saved them hours of machining time. Think of how long it would take to CNC machine a solid block down to this shape! Also think of the cost savings on tooling board. Call us at: (800) 845-0745 with questions on your project!

 

 

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This custom block is made out of Precision
Board Plus PBLT-10, and was machined into a mold to create one of the three composite body sections for the landspeed record-holding Speed Demon race car (see full article here), operated by George Poteet and Ron Main. In addition to buying less material, they also saved money by eliminating the plug process.

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A pioneer in the use of soft tooling, Jon Sharp  shared his opinion on the advantages of custom-bonded tooling blocks with us in our previous article featuring him and his time at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

“Another major reason we were so drawn to HDU for tooling was the greater level of design flexibility that was suddenly available. We used to order our blocks several inches thicker than we needed them, which made the inevitable design changes much less of a headache. Could we have done that with metal? Absolutely not, we would have had to start all over again.”

-Jon Sharp

Whether its a composite layup tool, full-scale model, prototype, sculpture or other project – our custom tooling blocks will help keep you competitive, on schedule and on budget! Please contact us for additional information, or visit our Custom Tooling Blocks webpage.

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How To Make Prismatic Letters Stand Out With Synergy Sign & Graphics

1901341_10153802809240368_785612181_n“If I were to have used a lower density, the prismatic letters wouldn’t look half as sharp,” says Jim Dawson, owner of Synergy Sign & Graphics. He’s talking about a sign he made recently for F.S.R.C. Tanks, Inc., boasting prismatic letters that came out sharp as a knife.

Jim is the previous builder of the custom gearbox made from Precision Board Plus PBLT-30 and is well known for his creativity and innovation.“I wanted this sign to scream something different, something that would make it stand out from the normal signs people see every day. The owner of F.S.R.C. asked us to build him a sign that would be unique, but would also last forever, and we came up with the perfect idea,” recalls Dawson.

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Jim started this job with two sheets of 2″ x 4′ x 8′ Precision Board Plus PBLT-30, cutting them both on his 5′ x 10′ MultiCam CNC machine with software. “We CNC routed the 30lb. Precision Board, which is twice as dense as the 15lb. and can hold an extremely high level of detail. I knew if I were to try 15lb, the prismatic letters wouldn’t have the same pop as 30lb, which weighed in on my final decision,” explains Jim. “After we CNC-routed each face, we tig-welded an aluminum frame and attached it to the back of each sheet to provide strengthening and reinforcement.”

The pillars, as you may notice, are neither identical, nor entirely uniform. “As a graduate of Dan Sawatzky’s sculpting class, and thus, an amateur sculptor, I decided to shape the fiberglass-reinforced concrete posts entirely by hand. By doing this we hoped to give part of the sign a truly man-made aspect, as opposed to using cardboard forms as would most often be the case,” states Dawson.

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Of course, the detail on the substrate isn’t the only thing that stands out on this sign. “We used a pretty bright color combination for the sign to add to it’s ‘wow’ factor,” reveals Jim. “After we primed the sign with Coastal’s FSC-88WB Primer/Filler, we used Sherwin-Williams Acrylic Latex Paints, Incredible White and SW6967 Frank Blue, to give it a really vibrant finish.”

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Synergy Sign & Graphics is not your ordinary sign shop! See more of their beautiful designs here.

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