Turn a Flat Sign into 3D with Precision Board HDU!

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to host guest blogs written by some of the signage industry’s biggest movers and shakers, posted to the Precision Board Blog.  This guest blog is written by Adam Carlson with CNC Tahoe.  He talks about how a local sign company, Dollar Signs and Graphics, approached him to carve two large crosses with roses around them for a new sign they were making for a local church.  They are fabricating the sign itself, but needed to outsource the creation of the two large 3D pieces to mount on the sign. The pieces are 24″ x 42″ and are carved out of 1″ thick PBLT-15 Precision Board HDU. Once Adam completes the carvings, they will be painted and installed on the sign.

3d

A Q&A with Adam Carlson from CNC Tahoe…

How did you get selected to do the dimensional part of this sign?

I live in a small mountain community, but it is also a worldwide destination resort seeing millions of tourists every year. I have been doing CNC work for 5 years and some of my work as been seen and appreciated by locals and businesses alike. I know the owner of the sign company and he knew that I had the machinery and skills to get the job done. He contacted me and I ran a quick sample of the bottom 1/8 of the piece to show him how it would turn out.

Why use Precision Board for this sign?

Precision Board machines better than anything I cut on my CNC. It’s dimensionally stable and is voidless, also lightweight at the 15 lb. density. Because it is closed cell, HDU is waterproof and resistant to heat and cold, making it a perfect choice for all outdoor signage. Dollar Signs and Graphics uses Precision Board on a lot of their signs.

What density of Precision Board did you use for this project?

PBLT-15 Precision Board HDU was the density of choice, I did not make that choice though. The sign shop made that decision and I knew that I’d be able to work with it no problem as I’ve worked with the 15 pound density in the past.

You converted a 2D design into 3D. How did you do that?

I have limited skills in 3D conversion, so I had to outsource the 3D modeling to a professional. The original artwork was given to me by the sign shop who worked with the local church. I then contacted my guy to do the modeling.

3d

What software do you use for your CNC?

For the CAD/CAM I use Vectric Aspire software. It’s great software and I’ve been using it for 6 years. Programming didn’t take too long for me as I’ve done quite a bit of 3D work and know the little things that can cause headaches, so I can avoid them.

What kind of CNC do you have?

I am using a Shopbot Buddy PRSalpha 48-12. Shopbot is a great company based out of Durham, NC and have great customer support and an amazing network of users. This piece maxes out my current work envelope but I am going to expand my table to a 4′ x 4′ sooner than later, it’s currently 4′ x 2′ x 11″.

What router bits did you use and did you need to use multiple bits?

I only use Amana tooling on my Shopbot, which I get through ToolsToday. The Spektra coated end mills last so much longer than just solid carbide and I can personally say that I’ve experienced way longer tool life. I also take care of my tooling and make sure to clean it with a non-caustic cleaner in a ultrasonic unit after each use. Seems like overkill, but I have yet to have a Spektra coated end mill wear out on me.

For this job, I used 2 different end mills. A 3D carving end mill and a straight end mill for the profile cutout. The 3D carving end mill is tool #46284-K from Amana and the profiling end mill is #46483-K.

Speeds and feeds settings for the routing of the Precision Board?

The settings for the 3D portion are: Feed Rate of 600 IPM and Plunge Rate of 420 IPM with a spindle speed of 13,000 RPM using a 10{afbea94bd31582343c3017644f03ec8d7d8fa2386ecb82c250661e06c0c6e111} stepover (.012″). Due to the acceleration/deceleration settings in my control software, there are limits to the machine actually reaching full speed while maintaining accuracy. I’m waiting on new pinions from Shopbot and I needed to get this job done. The sample I ran prior to the job had bad quality because of the worn pinions allowing the machine to slightly miss steps.

The settings for the 2D profile cut portion are: Feed Rate of 60 IPM and Plunge Rate of 45 IPM with a spindle speed of 18,000 RPM cutting at full depth in one pass. I was really conservative on this as I don’t have a full vacuum table and wanted to leave a skin on the bottom to hold it in place. Since PBLT-15 is lighter weight and less dense, I didn’t want to push it and have any chip out or chatter. Worked out perfect and only takes 5 minutes to clean up the “skinning” afterwards.

How long did it take to rout all the PB for this project?

Each piece took approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes for the 3D carving portion and the profile cutout took about 3 minutes. Going into the Shopbot Control software I’m able to adjust my ramping deceleration/acceleration speeds and distances, to maximize speed while not losing quality or having my machine wear prematurely. This is the largest 3D carving I’ve done in my 5 years machining but luckily it went smooth and the finished product came out clean.

Any tips or tricks you used for this project?

If you don’t have a vacuum setup, using the “skin” method during the profile cut will help keep your piece in place while allowing you to use a few screws to hold down the main board. Especially with PBLT-15, when you go to remove the skin, it comes off so easy you really only need to rub the edge with your fingers and the edge is clean and sharp, removing the .005″ of material that was holding it to the main board. Max out your feeds and speeds because as long as you have an accurate machine, PBLT-15 truly cuts like butter.

Adam Carlson runs CNC Tahoe, a shop where he does design, woodwork and machining.  He also runs PLUS Skateboards.  You can contact him via email.

Coastal Enterprises is a 30-year old privately-owned company, located in California.  Our manufacturing producst and processes are fully integrated in the United States, which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. For thirty years we have manufactured Precision Board, a high-density urethane tooling board used in many different applications including composite tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare. You can get pricingfree samplessign up for newsletters or contact us.

Which Precision Board Density is Right for You?

Coastal Enterprises offers 16 different densities of Precision Board HDU ranging from 4lb up to 75lb, but what does that mean for me?  In this short Q&A blog, we’ll explain how density correlates to physical properties as it pertains to your individual project.  We’ll also give you the pros and cons of higher versus lower densities to find the best Precision Board product for you.

What is density?

Density is a measurement of weight per cubic volume or in Standard terms, pounds per cubic foot. This means that if you cut a 12”X12”X12” cube of a 15 pcf density material, it would weigh 15 lbs.

How many densities of Precision Board are there?

Coastal Enterprises offers 16 densities of Precision Board in low-temp (PBLT <200ºF) and high-temp (PBHT <300ºF) formulations.  Densities include 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 34, 40, 48, 60, 70 & 75.

How do we fit more material in per cubic foot to raise the density?

Precision Board is a cellular material that is made up of millions of individual cells, linked together in a closed cell network. As the Precision Board goes up in density, individual cell walls get thicker thus adding more material into each cubic foot.

So what does that mean for me?

As the cell wall gets thicker, two things happen. First, there is an increase in physical properties such as compressive strength, flexural modulus and Shore D hardness. Second, as the cell wall gets thicker the exposed interior of the cells cut during machining gets smaller, translating to improved surface profile. In other words, as the density increases, you get a stronger material as well as a smoother surface.

Why not use the highest density available on all projects?

As you go up in density you also go up in cost and weight proportionately. The goal in finding the perfect Precision Board solution for your project is to find the density that provides you with the physical properties and surface profile your project requires without being any more expensive or heavy than you need.

How do I know which density is the right combination of physical properties, surface profile, weight and cost?

Contact our technical sales department to discuss your specific project needs. With decades of experience they can help guide you to the correct material. They are available by phone at 800-845-0745 or by email at hdu@precisionboard.com.

Coastal Enterprises is a 30-year old privately-owned company, located in California.  Our manufacturing producst and processes are fully integrated in the United States, which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. For thirty years we have manufactured Precision Board, a high-density urethane tooling board used in many different applications including composite tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare. You can get pricingfree samplessign up for newsletters or contact us.

Sawatzky Guest Blog: A Hazelnut Inn Update

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 gives us an update on his passion project – The Hazelnut Inn, and points out all the different places that PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU is used to make this themed bed & breakfast look so fantastical!

In Dan’s own words…

Many of our projects are very large and it is not unusual for them to be in our shop for a year or more before they are installed and complete. The Hazelnut Inn is a personal project and has to fit around our customer’s projects. It is also very large and the most detailed we have ever taken, so it will take a long time to complete. We’ve been at it four years so far and it will be at least another year before the first suite is open to guests. But we are making great progress and it is looking spectacular!

While much of the project is fabricated using hand sculpted fibreglass reinforced concrete, we are also using a lot of Precision Board HDU where it is applicable.

From the road things are looking pretty colourful. The building certainly catches everyone’s eye as they drive by!

We used precision Board on many of the details including the roof caps, finales and the primary sign in this picture.

The stature of our heroine is also sculpted from 30 lb Precision Board.

hazelnut inn

The North Star suite is the most complete thus far. It is the unit closest and most visible from the road. We are currently doing the sculpting of the lower section where guests will enter the garden. The North Star sign was fabricated almost four years ago (one of the first projects while we were waiting for our building permit).  We finally installed it on the rudder of the ship in the last couple of weeks.

Adjacent to the North Star entry is the maintenance room for the Inn. This area is where the cleaning supplies, storage and laundry will be for the staff. It is probably the fanciest entry to a staff area in the whole world!

The faux shutters are fabricated from PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU to match the adjacent wood doors.

hazelnut inn

Adjacent to the service area is the Under Hill suite. We are now beginning the theme work on this area. It will have a private 600 square foot garden in front of the unit. The hand crafted gate is soon to be installed.

Today we did the faux brick work around the pocket in the wall which allowed us to install the Under Hill sign at last!

hazelnut inn

While we were at it we installed the Copper Crown sign on the castle suite. It won’t be until later this summer that we do the theme work on this portion of the building.

Inside the building, the North star suite is further along. Inside the ship the sleeping area is almost complete. The headboard, figureheads and clamshell light fixtures are all 30 lb Precision Board.

hazelnut inn

There are many other prefabricated pieces already finished, tucked away for safekeeping for now. As we get into more finishing we will be using more 30 lb Precision Board for fabrication as it is easy to work and holds detail extremely well.

I’ll provide another update on The Hazelnut Inn as we get a little further along. Stay tuned…

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 samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.

Coastal Enterprises finds Opportunities amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Coastal Enterprises, Manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, was recently featured in the pages of Composites World, a leading magazine in the composites and tooling industry.  They talked to Chip Going, Sales Manager, and Tai Freligh, Marketing Manager, about how the company’s U.S.-integrated supply chain and custom services have helped them to overcome situational challenges for their customers.  Read some excerpts below and then head over to their website for the full article.

composites world

Here are some quotes from the article:

“The positive side of it is that through adversity, oftentimes, it’s the fuel we need to find a better way,” says Chip Going, sales manager for Coastal Enterprises. Going uses the word “nimble” to describe the company’s adaptability over the past few months. Coastal Enterprises’ relatively small size and private ownership, for example, have allowed it to quickly make high-level decisions, from adding new densities to its product lineup, to adding more custom bonding and cutting services, to slipping new, accelerated projects into the schedule. “Right now, things are changing so fast that for us to be able to react to people’s needs in real time is a huge advantage for us,” Going adds.

“You hear the word ‘pivot’ a lot,” adds Tai Freligh, marketing manager at Coastal Enterprises. “That’s another opportunity for us. I think people are discovering just how versatile Precision Board is.” For example, the company has seen several of its customers pivot their usual manufacturing capabilities to help alleviate shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE), or to build products to help with social distancing such as sanitized wall panels or partitions.

composites world

If you want to read the entire article, you can find it at the Composites World website HERE.  You can also check out our Composites World page here on the website for previous articles in the magazine over the past few years.

Coastal Enterprises is a 30-year old privately-owned company, located in California.  Our manufacturing producst and processes are fully integrated in the United States, which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. For thirty years we have manufactured Precision Board, a high-density urethane tooling board used in many different applications including composite tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare. You can get pricingfree samplessign up for newsletters or contact us.

Sawatzky Guest Blog: A New Tool to Cut 3″ Thick Precision Board

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.

precision board

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.

precision board

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.

precision board

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!
precision board

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 samplesget a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.