Giving Life to Precision Board

Every year the next generation continues to impress us. After receiving the donated Precision Board Plus from Coastal Enterprises Company, these select creative minds brought life to what was once a block of urethane. Using PBLT hand in hand with 3D Printers, Paper Laser Cutters and CNC Milling machines, the students at Carleton University in Ottawa are working with cutting edge technology. They are incorporating materials and machinery to create amazing works of art.

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PBLT 15 & PBLT 18, along with 3D printing, shows the intricate detail in the ‘Reef Project’

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PB Bond-240 (one part Urethane adhesive) being applied to bond sheets of Precision Board, to achieve desired thickness for this project.   Next step: CNC machining!

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Brant Lucuik, a professional CNC technician, helped the students learn about and use the CNC machine to carve the Precision Board.  There was a combination of densities used for this project. The students used PBLT-10 up to PBLT-20, though PBLT-15 and PBLT-18 were the norm. Everyone was pleased with how easy Precision Board was to work with, “It sands and mills beautifully and I would use it exclusively if I could” said Johan Voordouw, Professor of 2nd year Modeling and responsible for the reef project.

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The students at Carleton used several 3D printers from around campus in conjunction with the Precision Board to create this reef scene. Most of the 3D printers used were “smaller makerbots” to create the coral reef shapes. Superglue was used to bond the 3D art to CNC carved Precision Board.

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Precision Board in conjunction with 3d printing make ideas become reality. For more information regarding these projects, contact Professor Johan at Carleton University. For any more information about a potential CNC project, contact Brant at Carleton University. To find out more about Carleton University, Click Here!

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Check out our Sign Gallery! See the latest projects using Precision Board Plus HDU

Our sign and model gallery has excellent pictures of the latest projects using Precision Board Plus HDU. Routed, hand-carved, and sandblasted signs from all over the country. Check it out here: Sign & Model Gallery. Would you like to be a part of our gallery? Call us at: (800) 845-0745!

Thank you to Mr. Wray Bassett at Graphic ID, located in Dover, PA for sending us these amazing pictures.

#TBT #ThrowBackThursday #PrecisionBoard #Foam #Signs #SignGallery #GraphicID #NationalParks

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bfree Sign: A Dimensional Sign of Metal and Wood (or maybe not)

I am lucky enough to live in the great town of Warwick, NY – we have wonderful restaurants and shops and its a destination for many people on weekend getaways. There is a new trendy shop opening, bfree and we were lucky enough to be called to help with her “new” look.

The clients logo needed some tweaking and unfortunately wouldn’t work on the sign.  We started by taking the logo and reformatting it to match the “feel” of the store and to better represent what you would see inside.

Our graphic designer Nanette jumped in and began creating a new logo which would incorporate wood, brushed metal and copper.

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Client loved it – now its time to make this baby!

We began with 15# Precisionboard HDU at a 1.5″ thickness. This will allow us to get all the elements, except the bfree letters on one panel.  We carved the brushed texture and branch into the background and the wood texture of the frame using our MultiCam 3000 CNC.

595 599We drilled holes and cut pockets for our lettering which we’ll make separately as a two part letter.  605 While the machine was working away Peter experimented with the some techniques to create a realistic copper finish.

603We’ve sealed the foam with a coat of AquaResin and and primed. ready for paint!

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We are using Modern Masters metallic silver as the base coat for the brushed metal. we’ll then add several glaze coats of latex color over it. When the sun hits it during the day it will shine like real metal and at night the overhead goosenecks will really bring out the metal finish and texture.

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While Peter is painting the silver Holin is in the paint booth painting the letters. We’ve carved the copper “swirl”  texture directly into the PVC cut letters for additional texture. We’ll then mount the 1/4″ Copper PVC textured face to 1/2″ black PVC for dimension and to also add some contrast.

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017 018 023 024 The letters are done – we’ll take them off and focus on the wood frame.

The latex base coat of the wood frame goes down then two or three coats of darker glaze. We now have a nice contrast of colors against the copper and black letters.

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All painted – ready to go on the truck for the install.

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171Installed and lit and looks great! We wish bfree the best of luck with your new location.

-Steve

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Custom Logo Sign

Oh how we love our friends at Jura! Not only are they wonderful people but they make the greatest coffee makers on the planet!

As they are building out their new headquarters they requested KDF to fabricate a large logo for the reception area.This logo is approximately 4’x8′.

We are making it out of 1 piece of 15# Precision Board HDU which is 2″ thick. We remove excess material from the back to reduce the weight. Once complete we’ll pin mount it to the wall.

After cutting the logo we spray a coating of AquaResin to give it a nice hard shell and to seal the foam. A quick sanding and we have the finish we need for painting.

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Two coats our PPG waterborne primer.

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And then color….

110  Once the color has dried we applied a satin clear coat.103  And we are ready to install!

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All done. Best of luck in your new headquarters!

(I need to go get some coffee)

-Steve

 

 

Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.

Full 3D Dolphin Art Piece

We recently had a great opportunity to work with an artist client of ours.  His piece incorporated a  five foot long three dimensional dolphin. Of course we immediately said yes to the project and jumped right in.

We started by sourcing a 3D Model of the “perfect dolphin” for the job – the client reviewed all the options and once he settled on the final shape we began our work.

In the 3D model we removed the fins which will be cut separately and attached later.

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From the 3D model we created a relief for each slice, 2 slices per side. Our material will be 4″ thick 15lb Precision Board HDU. All of the design work  was done directly in Enroute Pro. 119

Now we’re ready to start cutting the HDU on our MultiCAM 3000 CNC. We start with a long 1/2″ Foam Bit on the rough pass to remove the excess material quickly.  Then move to a 3/8″ Ball End Mill for the finish pass.

123 137 152 156Once it’s all glued together we’ll sand the facets off for a smooth surface.

Now its time for the fins!

To cut the fins we decided to cut each fin out of 1 piece of foam. So we cut the first side – then reregistered the foam block on the table and cut the second side – giving us a seamless 3D part.

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Now its time to send all of these parts to the paint shop for some steel, finishing and painting.

Fist the steel frame needs to be welded and set inside the dolphin. This will give the piece a lot of strength and we can hide the support bracket that will bolt to the steel stand. photo

photo 1Once the welded frame is complete the dolphin can be screwed and glued together. Then the first coat of primer is sprayed.photo 5

All the holes will get filed and the crew will sand and sand and sand until perfect. The final paint and clear coats applied and the finish will look like glass. Here is the dolphin in all its glory at the gallery in Germany.

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Published with permission from KDF Custom Graphics. Source.