Wine Barrel Signage in HDU

[Georgia Design Works]

Just completed my 3rd sign job. This one was Aspire-intensive (for me) and kinda scary because of its complexity. The sign is two-side and the customer wanted it to look like a wine barrel top. Beneath it will hang another two sided rectangular sign. Attached is what the customer provided for the concept along with the instructions that it will be 40 inches in diameter and she wanted it to look aged complete with mildew, etc. After considering using western red cedar, I finally settled on HDU for its weather resistant properties. I will follow up this post with additional posts with some pictures to show the process I used.
George

[Georgia Design Works]

I decided to use 1.5" HDU and to attach the barrel staves separately. I drew the barrel up in Aspire and drew in 8 equally spaced vertical lines to profile cut with a v-bit. This would simulate separate boards on the barrel top. I rendered the customers bit map into vectors and used a combination of pocketing, v-carving, inlaying tool paths. All 40 stave pieces (20 per side) were cut from HDU as 1"X2"X6.25" blanks on a table saw and band saw. Each stave end was mitered at 8 degrees. A 20" radius curve was shaped onto the outside of each stave using a stationary disc sander. The HDU sands into shape quite readily.270982709927100

[Georgia Design Works]

After completing both side of the sign in 1.5" HDU I applied 2 coats of Jay Cook Sign Primer. I originally was going to use some 3D texturing on the ShopBot but it would of taken a ridiculous amount of time. Something like 10 hours. Instead I did the wood texturing by hand using a v-gouge carving tool. I was quite pleased with the effect and it only took me about an hour to carve in the grain lines. I even got carried away and put in some knots and twisted grain. It's pretty hard to screw up. When it came time to hand texture the staves I had a friends teenage kids help out and they did a respectable job. The base coat of paint was purchased at Home Depot and was Behr Ultra in a satin finish (color was Roasted Cashew). We also painted the stave pieces in that color. In the attached photo you can see how the staves fit around the barrel top.
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[Georgia Design Works]

As can be seen above the barn logo was pocketed using a .125 EM following a .25 EM clearance. Depth of the barn pocket was .25 inch. and was hand painted with Behr Ultra black satin. The foliage and lettering was v-carved with a 90 deg v-bit and also hand painted. The hand painting with black was pretty tedious work, but I found that when it came time to apply the brown paint with a small foam roller it had a tendency to clean up some to the sloppy black edges. The arrow pocket was .25 inch deep and I cut the arrow out of half inch Extira that was primed, painted black, and then epoxied into place.
The customer insisted that we try to match her concept picture with regards to aging. After the light brown paint had dried we applied some gray Behr Ultra thinned down and wiped off to darken the cracks, sort of like a glaze. Did the same glazing technique on the staves. To get the staves even darker we followed up with some asphaltum stain that I had. The effect was stunning but I regretting using it because this stain left a bit of a tacky surface. I think it was designed to be used under a finish coat like lacquer and not on top of latex/acrylic paint.
27103

[bleeth]

This looks very nice.
What are you doing to give it the internal structure for hanging?
Keep posting your progress shots!!

Dave

[Georgia Design Works]

I forgot to mention that the sign was going to be hung from a wrought iron support so I needed to attach some heavy eye screws 60 degrees apart at the top, and 60 degrees apart at the bottom to suspend the additional rectangular sign. This necessitated me to fashion a simple holding jig on the CNC to pocket the back to hold four 6x3x1" blocks of western red cedar.
Each half of the sign was pocketed to a depth of .5" so the wood would be trapped inside after each half was glued together.
The wood blocks were epoxied into their pockets, and the two halfs of the sign were glued using PB-240. It was a good thing that I used painters tape to protect the edges as this glue does foam up and there was some squeeze out.
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[Georgia Design Works]

After seeing all the foamy squeeze-out from glueing each half together, we decided to use epoxy to glue on the stave pieces. These were prefinished and didn't want to risk having the glue squeeze out. I'm hoping the epoxy will provide a good bond between the HDU pieces. Below is the rectangular sign that hangs beneath the barrel top. I used a double thickness of 1.5" HDU and grooved the inside of each frame piece to hold the .75" panel of Extira. I, again, hand carved the wood grain into the HDU, and used the same paints/technique as finishing the barrel top. The customer wanted just a plain black blank panel so she could attach a sign on the sign. Apparently this place is a venue for various events like weddings, etc, and the name of the person/party who has rented the event will be posted on this rectangular sign.
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[Georgia Design Works]

Some final details I forgot to mention. The 5/16" eye bolts were screwed into pilot-drilled holes deep enough to screw into the internal support blocks. Epoxy was also placed into the hole before putting in the screws. The two eye screws on top of the rectangular hanging sign were screwed well into the edge of the Extira panels. Epoxy was also used. I don't know how well Extira holds a screw but I figured the epoxy was extra insurance.
The customer had another person hired to make the post/support for this sign. She was ecstatic over the result of this project and has now hired me to do ten additional signs, each with the same look/feel/style. These will be relatively simple HDU frames hand-textured like wood with extira panels inside with lettering such as "Parking", "Exit", "Restroom", "Magnolia Roomj", etc, etc.
For the barrel top sign and rectangular sign that will hang beneath it I went out on a limb and charged her $2K. This is just for the signage, as she has someone else hired to do the decorative wrought iron support and post. She didn't even hesitate, so I guess my pricing was good.
Any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks for the opportunity to share this project. Learned lots.

[James M]

Nice Sign!

Thanks for describing the process of making the sign.

James

[Georgia Design Works]

Thank you James M.

[scottp55]

Thanks for your trouble to do the walk through and details, very informative!
Doubt I'll ever do anything like it, but good to know. :)
Congrats on the extra signs!!
scott

[powerlsc]

Georgia....I felt like I was reading a very well written and illustrated sign manual. Very well documented by both description and photos. Definitely a keeper for my reference files.

Thanks for sharing and including the price. I think that's a tough point for all of us.

Lynn

[bobmoore]

Great sign and documentation.

[Georgia Design Works]

Thanks Bobmoore and Lynn for the kind words. I have learned so much on this forum so it feels good to be able to give back. I am a new SB owner and there has been a long learning curve with both the machine itself and the vectric software. Jobs have been few and far between and they are finally picking up steam as I build my portfolio. In sign making There are so many different materials and so much to learn. This forum has been an invaluable resource. Fortunately I have a woodworking background and a well equiped shop. Yes, pricing has been an issue as I usually tend to underprice my work.
George