16-ft sign in 2 x 8' sections

[rob_sekeris]

The customer needs a 16 ft horizontal v-carved sign with a border. My bed is only 8 feet, so I need to make it in 2 sections.
I have Aspire and made a nice design on a 16 x 4 ft work piece. There are some parts that straddle both sides of the 8' seam, so the separation of the two pieces needs to be in pretty good register.
Now I need to cut my design in half so I can make it. ( 1-1/2" HDU)
I KNOW this probably has a simple answer, but I have yet to find it. :o

Help would be greatly appreciated.

[bleeth]

Just cut a big curved countertop out of a very high end corian that had the same issue. I put down a strip 2 1/8" wide along my x to use as a register fence and ran it a little south of my Y "0". Then I trimmed it with a 1/4" bit to 2". trimmed the end to get a dead "0", and then I used it as a register. For the cuts that went over the border I offset them in the appropriate direction and cut along vector. It came out pretty darn close.

All this was necessary cause I still haven't put in that nice air operated positioning system that that guy who lives in the Keys has.

[rob_sekeris]

Once I have it machined, the tweaking for the registration wouldn't be hard. All I would have to do is to cut it a smidge over-size.
My dilemma is how to cut the vectors before I create the tool paths of the two sections.

[chiloquinruss]

Robert - unless I'm missing something, I think all you need to do is to make a copy of your entire piece. Then draw a vertical line down the center where you want your piece to seperate. Next use the 'trim' tool (the little scissors) and remove the excess end. Realign for tool pathing the cutting the first half. Repeat the process for the opposite end. Anyhow that's how I would approach the project. FYI, I have NOT tried to do this, so this is just my opinion on how I would try to get er' done. :) Russ

[bleeth]

Rob: Once you have split the part into your two files you need to offset the vectors to be cut outward 1/2 the width of your bit and then cut by machining along vector.

[rob_sekeris]

Robert - unless I'm missing something, I think all you need to do is to make a copy of your entire piece. Then draw a vertical line down the center where you want your piece to seperate. Next use the 'trim' tool (the little scissors) and remove the excess end. Realign for tool pathing the cutting the first half. Repeat the process for the opposite end. Anyhow that's how I would approach the project. FYI, I have NOT tried to do this, so this is just my opinion on how I would try to get er' done. :) Russ

Indeed a doable workaround. Thank you Russ. But that is cumbersome. Aspire offers that feature for horizontal slicing along the x-y plane, I was hoping to find something to do this along the x-z plane. One slice, piece on the left and piece on the right. :)

Best I squirt some lube into the pivot of my scissor tool, huh?:rolleyes:

[rob_sekeris]

Rob: Once you have split the part into your two files you need to offset the vectors to be cut outward 1/2 the width of your bit and then cut by machining along vector.

I hadn't thought of that, but yes, thank you!

(They don't call me a junior member for nuttin' :) )

[chiloquinruss]

"something to do this along the x-z plane" _ now see I said unless I was missing something! :) I don't do any real 3d stuff. Mostly just 2d but all in Aspire. I did not think about the issues with 3d. Anyhow, I really don't think 'virtual' oil will work on the those little scissors! :) Russ

[jay_d_wyant]

Rob,
If I understand correctly:confused:, your sign is v-carved. Just splitting the sign down the middle will not allow the the carving to go all the way to the edge. You would need to do as Russ said and have two separate files for each half, but for the text or graphics to be cut a little beyond center. Having trouble explaining it, but you would need the v-carving to extend beyond the true cut edge down the center(like 48x97), so that once carved you could cut the part down the center(48x96) and leave a clean edge that would mate up.

Sorry if this just seems confusing, because it sounds confusing to me as I type it.

If you are just trying to cut the sign in half, draw a rectangle around the side you want to remove and use the "subtract vectors tool". Just do as Russ said and have a copy in another file. One for left, and one for right.

Hope it helps.

Jay

[rob_sekeris]

(snipped for brevity)

Sorry if this just seems confusing, because it sounds confusing to me as I type it.

If you are just trying to cut the sign in half, draw a rectangle around the side you want to remove and use the "subtract vectors tool". Just do as Russ said and have a copy in another file. One for left, and one for right.

Hope it helps.

Jay

It is a bit like trying to describe a spiral staircase without using your hands.:)

But the "subtract vectors tool" would do the trick! Thanks...and I did understand what you meant by oversizing at least the radius of the v-carving bit...

[rob_sekeris]

Robert - unless I'm missing something, I think all you need to do is to make a copy of your entire piece. Then draw a vertical line down the center where you want your piece to seperate. Next use the 'trim' tool (the little scissors) and remove the excess end. Realign for tool pathing the cutting the first half. Repeat the process for the opposite end. Anyhow that's how I would approach the project. FYI, I have NOT tried to do this, so this is just my opinion on how I would try to get er' done. :) Russ

That scissor tool did the trick. I'm pretty happy with the results. Thank you.
It was easy to trim the two big pieces after I left enough overlap.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/Robatoy/VV2part.jpg

[rob_sekeris]

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/Robatoy/MVMorning.jpg

[curtiss]

I would suppose this would be a good issue to practice on something inexpensive first.

Seems like it would take two part files, ....maybe save the drawing out to a second part file, then move all the vectors 8 ft in the -y direction, pick out the 2nd set of vectors for the second cut and your off and running.

[navigator7]

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/Robatoy/MVMorning.jpg

Wow. Nice sign, Robert.
I hope the customer's socks were blown off.
I'd sure be delighted with your product!

[beacon14]

Excellent work. Always nice to see a question reach a successful conclusion.

[bleeth]

Looks great. Glad we all could help.

[curtiss]

Very Nice work

So the "A" and the "&" are cut on two different pieces / files ?

What Paints are used ?

What is the best/ proper way of mounting it to the building ?

[signtist]

Very nice Robert!!! Could you explain a little more on the splitting.
It looks like it would be easy "IF" it was like 15'-10" long, so you could overlap the V-carved letters in the splice.
I know this type of job is going to come up at my shop sooner or later.
Thanks so much for sharing......that's one to be very proud of!

John www.signgraphics1.com (http://www.signgraphics1.com)

[rob_sekeris]

Very Nice work

So the "A" and the "&" are cut on two different pieces / files ?

What Paints are used ?

What is the best/ proper way of mounting it to the building ?


Thanks everybody for the kind words and thanks for all the help. It really made a difference.

I created the whole sign on a 15' 11" x 4' high board in Aspire (except the appliques behind which I later hid some screws.)
I made a duplicate on another file/document.
The first one I split with a line which I moved .75" left of centre
The second file, I split with a line .75" right of centre. That guaranteed me an overlap.
After I split the two sections, I used the scissor tool to remove everything off one side of the line, and the other file/doc I used same tool but I removed everything on the other side.
I then simply changed my material size to an 8-ft sheet and centred it.
I then node edited all the open vectors.
When I had the two sheets of 2" sign foam, I took a straight edge and a 2" straight bit in a router and shaved off what I thought would be a nice spot for 'confusion-to-the-eye'. After I shaved off the first 3/4", I then laid the ' already-cut'-to-size' piece on top of the other slab and drew a line where the two pieces looked to be perfectly in registration. I paid particular attention that the bottom of the side-by-side slabs formed a straight line. I did that with a 12' aluminum straight-edge.

The paints..... I will record the info on the cans and get back to you. The details were all OneShot. The gold leaf was indeed gold leaf.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o290/Robatoy/MVRegistration1.jpg

[JohnG]

very nice. Definately something to be proud of.

[joe]

Congratulations Robert,

You've done an amazing job. I like seeing work like this going up. It has such a good color scheme and technical ability. Wish more signs had graphics like this. It bring the whole sign together.

Keep us posted on your future work.