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 talks about working with X-Edge Tools, a router bit manufacturer, to develop a bit that would cut through 3″ thick Precision Board.  Dan lays out his process step-by-step of working with Jay at X-Edge to get just the right router bit for the job!

In Dan’s own words…

In our shop we are always on the hunt for new materials, tools and methods to do our work better and more efficiently. While we discover a few things on our own, most often others in the business are our teachers. Even after more than fifty years in the sign business I find there is so much new to learn! You can teach an old dog new tricks it seems.  🙂

I was talking to our good friend Jay at X-EDGE Tools a while back about a few challenges we were having as we fabricated our signs using Precision Board. Because we use primarily PBLT-30 Precision Board of thicker dimensions than most, we run into difficulties from time to time. There are always workarounds that can get us by, but with the help of others we can often figure out a better way of doing things.

Jay is a master at all things to do with CNC routers and especially routing bits. He also loves a challenge. I mentioned to him that we had been using a 3/8” cutter with a 1.5” cutting edge to cut our 2” thick Precision Board HDU. By chucking it up in the collet a bit shallow (not enough bit in the collet) I could squeeze enough depth out of the bit to go through 2” of material without rubbing the collet. It wasn’t an ideal solution but it got us by for many years.

Jay asked me what I needed. I asked for a 4” long 3/8” bit with a 2.5” cutting edge. Jay had a prototype made and sent me out a 4” long 3/8” RAZOR end mill to try. I designed a file and gave it a spin. While it did the job I wasn’t satisfied. The bit was extremely noisy – a definite sign we were getting too much vibration. I let Jay know and he immediately went back to the drawing board.

A short time later I was delighted to receive a package in the mail with two 4” long – 1/2” Razor end mills. One had a tighter helix than the other. Jay asked me to put them through their paces and let him know my thoughts.

I designed a file that had straight, curved and angle cuts.  It measured about 8” x 16” by 2” thick. Then I threw some 2” thick 30lb Precision Board HDU on the router and fired it up.

Generally we do our cutting of 30lb Precision Board in 1/2” increments but since I was doing a test I ran double that with 1” deep cuts. I started at 300 inches per minute at 14,000 rpm (our normal cutting speed) for PBLT-30 Precision Board.  The first bit was noisier than I liked which I knew would translate into some roughness. I fiddled with the speeds and feeds through the cut but the results didn’t remarkably improve from my initial settings. On inspection after the cut was finished, the bit did its job and the cut quality was adequate. With a cleanup pass I’m sure it would have been fine. But since we have neighbours close by I wasn’t happy with the noise.

The second bit performed much better. The noise was much less and the cut quality was much improved as well. And I am sure a cleanup pass would make things perfect.

The reality is that in fifteen years of routing I’ve never done a cleanup pass on our work. There was no need, as we always add texture by hand to the edges of our work after we do our assembly.

I of course shared my findings (with pictures) with Jay at X-EDGE Tools. He suggested I try the bit at a higher speed (18,000 RPM) which I immediately did. To my surprise, although it ran quieter,  the bit left more tool marks at this higher speed.

So we now have a great solution to a long standing challenge. We can safely cut material that is up to 3” thick with the new bit from X-EDGE Tools. To keep the noise down I would do it in half inch passes in the 30lb Precision Board HDU. If I needed a super clean edge I would do a cleanup pass.

We will keep experimenting with various speeds and feeds to see what is optimal on our machine.

Thanks to Jay at X-EDGE Tools!  If you have a particular challenge in your CNC cutting I’d bet Jay already has (or will invent) a solution that will fill your needs. I recommend them most highly!

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 samples, get a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

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 talks about a sample sign he made from 30lb Precision Board nearly ten years ago that has endured road trips to trade shows and lived in different spots in his studio/showroom.  It just goes to show the staying power of signs made from Precision Board high-density urethane (and the limited upkeep on them too!).

In Dan’s own words…

We built this sign back in the fall of 2010 – almost ten long years ago! It was a sample piece I created during our slow time in the financial recession. The sign was honoured with national and international awards and was featured in the trade magazines too. Best of all this sample sign brought us tens of thousands of dollars of paying work.

It weathered a lot of miles in the first couple of years. It travelled to a number of trade shows. It lived in my design studio when it wasn’t on the road. About five years ago we cut off the heavy duty floor stand and instead fashioned a new wall mount. It’s been moved from time to time when we rearrange the shop but it has lived on the upper wall of our workshop since then. Two or three times each year when we do a deep clean this sign gets the dust blown off along with the other 150 samples that live there.

The sign is made using PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU and still looks as good as the day it was finished.

Ed note: You can read all about how Dan put this project together back in 2011 with our throwback blog HERE.  He ended up winning first place in Sign Media Canada’s Stand Alone Sign category for this sign.  Here’s a photo from when he created it almost ten years ago.  Hard to tell the difference between then and now!

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 samples, get a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

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 talks about using the current COVID-19 down time to work on samples for your showroom or to spend time on your own shop sign, all with future sales and business in mind.

In Dan’s own words…

We are all in an unprecedented situation without a doubt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many sign makers are sitting at home waiting this out. Others are still able to go to work but projects and business has undoubtedly dried up in the last weeks for most shops. It is a distressing situation and far beyond our own control.

In our home-based business we are able to keep going for now. We have a large project that will keep us busy for a few more weeks yet but future projects are all suddenly on hold. We simply do not know when things will resume once more.

I’m not one that can simply sit idle and wait it out. While I understand the situation is unbelievably serious I still find myself looking towards the future. This is a wonderful opportunity to do some of those things we’ve long been putting off.

I’m asking myself, as I did during the great recession, what do I want to be doing when the good times return? We know they always do. It is time to get ready. When business resumes you will need to have some great samples to show your customers if what you wish to do is out of the ordinary.

For me that means it is time to make some samples for our studio walls. They don’t have to be large but each one should push the boundaries of what you are capable of. This is the chance to use up all those scraps of Precision Board HDU we’ve been hoarding. It’s a great time to learn that new software to do it. And it’s time to brush up on some new sculpting and painting skills.

During the last financial crisis I made the commitment (to myself) to make one outstanding sample per month. If things slow down or even stop for a while you should be able to do more than that.

Those samples I invested in the last time brought us many hundreds of thousands of dollars of work since then and still serve us well to this day.

Start small and with each project push a little further than ever before. I have made many name plaques for family and friends. Next Christmas when money may well be a little tight they will make great presents. These name plaques are a great way to experiment and learn new textures and finishing techniques.

I had time to make some more elaborate projects as well with time on my hands. I designed and made samples of the kinds of signs I wanted to make in the future.

I used that time to create a showroom full of samples that would make my clients gasp when they entered. There are more than a hundred and fifty hanging on our walls. These samples helped sell this kind of work in the ten years since they were created.

One of those many small sample projects was this model of the OGOPOGO (A fabled lake monster that resides in Okanagan Lake)

Last year a client saw the model I had done eleven years ago and ordered a full sized version. Last week we delivered it to our customer. Sample work!!!!

As we think about projects to give us the best opportunities in the future we absolutely should not forget about our own signs. What image do you want to present to your future customers? Your own sign should reflect the very best work you can possibly do. We made this sign during the last slowdown. It has won numerous awards, been featured in various magazines and most importantly brought us a ton of wonderful work. You will never have a better opportunity to create a showstopper for yourself!

We extended our creative efforts to all sorts of ‘home’ projects. They raised the bar for our future paying projects.

If you are stuck for ideas or how to proceed I would recommend browsing through the blog I created for Precision Board that features many of these projects (Ed note: that blog is no longer updated, but Dan continues to write monthly guest blogs like this one for the main blog). There are plenty of step-by-steps to help you along.

You have time NOW!

Stay well and be safe. Use your quiet time to get a head start on the good times in the future!

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 samples, get a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.