Archive through February 12, 2002

[joecrumley]

Our sign company has produced sandblasted redwood sign for twenty years. We are looking to expand our product line to alternative materials such as HD Foam. We have used a Grain Frame for sandblasting foam and it is, so,so. The Shopbot presents very exciting posabilities for us.


Foam is so good for routing and it will outlast most any wood and holds a edge around letters and decorations, but there are problems. First is the plain background. You have to do something about this or the sign will look like you cut out letters stuck on something. Why not use the something and save the money. There is also the issue of finishing. Foam manufactures offer a primer to fill the microscopic holes but, it is time consuming and not really very good. We are spoiled with Redwood.

My hope is to find a way to draw or import a woodgrain background and place it behind the letters. I guess the process would be to hatch out the letters, then run the background G code program to simulate a redwood sandblasted look. My initial problem has been how to cut the letters from the woodgrain pattern so they are compatable.

We looked into scanning one of our redwood background but would take too long. Most of our sign are in excess of 3'X6'

Perhaps I could send photo's if anyone is interested.

Best Wishes,

[threadfx]

ArtCAM is what you need. It is amazing software for the sign industry.

Not cheap, but it will do just what you are looking for.

More information at www.delcam.com

[Jeff Brown]

ModelMill also is capable of producing textures on your signs.
It's a Scanvec Amiable product, that is being absorbed by their next generation product, Enroute 3 ( I could be wrong about this).
They told me yesterday that ShopBot is an Enroute3 dealer. So you could probably give Shopbot a call.

[danhamm@abccom.bc.ca]

Joe what software are you presently using?
I have done active backgrounds on a quite a few
signs, coreldraw can make the project quite easy
if you are familiar with it..I have 3 windsor plywood stores that sell my unfinished or finished
delivery next day signs.. I use quite a bit of sign foam, but also use a form of mdf called medex
its a exterior mdf with plastic glue that cuts
way nicer than mdf and is amazing for its durability..check out my signs...
http://www.burningimpressions.ca/signs

[joecrumley]

Dear Dan, Jeff and Dan

I am using Flexisign and Corel for design and use RAMS for a G code's.

Do any of you guys have photo's of woodgrain backgrounds? I know it can be done cause so many fellows say they have done it.

I am attempting this project in the hardest possible way. I have drawn an exagerated form of woodgrain with an old pen and India Ink. This allows me to get thick and thin strokes. I assume this will give a more interesting background as RAMS converts this to a V carv file. That is, it will raise and lower the router according to the thickness of my lines. Flexi has a very good distrotion program. This helps with any boaring strait lines.

I appreciate your input.

[flyboy]

Since you allready have sandblasting equipment, they make a comb like thing that you blast through to make, they say, perfect simulated woodgrain. Precisionboard's catalog and sample package had the info in it. You could just keep blasting I guess or get a router. Otherwise, yep, we all want ArtCam. $7000 was it?