farm signs

[cartar929]

We've been getting a lot of farm signs at the shop here lately. Just wanted to post one of the latest finished products (the red beech sign). This sign is routed out of 18lb density hdu, and is painted with a water based all surface enamel paint, and is double faced. The sign is kind of heavy and it's going to be hanging from a double arm post, anyone have any suggestions on hardware?

The second pic is a design for Edgewood Farm, hopefully we can get them to go with the routing production method. Just wanted to see if maybe anyone had any input on what they don't like about it, or how to make it better.

[jerry_stanek]

how big is the Edgewood sign? The F in Farm seems to get lost so it looks like it says ARM

[cartar929]

jerry that is a good point, the sign is 38" x 23.5" so that I can run it two up on a sheet of hdu to make it a double faced sign.

i'll have to re-work the farm a little bit to see if a could get a better sollution.

[joe]

Very handsome sign. It's an excellent example of what can be done with a CNC.

My major concern is with installation. I'm sure you know HDU does not like bolts and screws. That has failed me several time. Special considerations have to be planed for when using HDU.

Keep up the good work.

Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.co (http://www.normansignco.co)

PS

Have you visited Noella's website, www.farmsigns.com (http://www.farmsigns.com)

[cartar929]

now I have, his stuff is pretty amazing

[cartar929]

hey joe, what "special considerations" would you plan for in this event?

[Big-Tex]

How about laying up HDU MDO HDU.

[joe]

You'd think a product that costs as much as HDU would be real tough. At my shop we only use it for detailed small jobs.

Most commercial sign opperations have figured out HDU needs interior supports for free standing signs. Many have used aluminum or steel tubes embeded in their back in order to reduce flex. I wouldn't miss it very much if it went off the market.

For your project, perhaps you could embed steel rods in the interior.These could extend out for installation brackets. Like Big Tex suggests, lamination with MDO would be helpful.

[Big-Tex]

What can I say I like bolts and screws hit some "meat".:)

I am found of adhesives but I am more found of mechanical fastening or combination of both.
I look not only at visiual aspect, engeneering of install is very important.

[joewino]

Just for clarification....Noella is a "she" - and she does some fantastic work.

While I don't go along with Joe's idea of taking HDU off the market, it does require some stiffening if free standing. We use either a backing of MDO or DiBond (or aluminum), depending on the application. Another alternative, especially on double faced signs, is to run square tubing between the layers for support and attachment to posts, etc.

On single faced signs the tubing can just attach to the back.

We use Corafoam made by Duna USA, but it is not easy to find a distributor.

[joe]

Perghaps Raymond and I should make it clear, attaching a HDU sign
with screws is asking for trouble.

Everyone on this forum is blessed to have a CNC. The one reason being it opens up the use of all sorts of materials that would otherwise not be available.

Raymond has the habit of getting out the Duna Board Salt Shaker since I don't have a distributor. It's painful.

[ghostcreek]

Here is a farm sign I did that the customer required to be of wood. I used a perfect plank product (cedar). Client loved it, so we made 4 more. They are placed on the road side that borders the orchard (300+ acres of olives). Biggest trouble was size. It is 3'x5', and I use a BT48. Took some work. Farm clients out here go for simple, old west style signs.

[tracys]

Does anyone know which font the work Edgewood is, and where I can find it? I am using aspire.

[joe]

Many sign artist build their fonts while designing their panels. Noella is very skilled at it.

Perhaps you could get something from www.letterheadfonts.com (http://www.letterheadfonts.com)

[Big-Tex]

save jpeg and use whatthefont to recognize what was font used

[cartar929]

Sorry haven't checked the blog in a while.

The first "E" in Edgewood is: oklahoma
The rest of the letters are: ifc insane rodeo

Both of these should be on dafont.com

[Blacknbart]

Carter,

Great sign work and I hope you figured out the best way to install it. I was wondering how long it took your CNC to carve the Red Beech sign. I am in the middle of costing CNC work so I can purchase a machine for my shop. Hopefully a Shop Bot! Any help would be appreciative.

Bart

[cartar929]

Bart,
The Red Beech sign was double faced and total it took me around 6 hours of carving time. I probably spent about 45 minutes testing some depths and techniques before that.
Actually the customer installed the Red Beech sign, and as far as I know it is attached with heavy duty eye hooks sank into the sign about 4 inches and glued. So, far no problems, but next time I would definitely cut a channel into the back to install some sort of rod for more security.
I suppose you could get it done faster, but I ran the machine fairly slow in order to try to save the small details.
I hope you are able to get a shop bot, it will change your life dramatically, and open a lot of doors for you.