My English Garden

[jhicks]

We have been working on what I consider to be a fairly complex dimensional sign for some time now but things are starting to come together.
Whitney gets all credit for the design, CNC manufacturing strategy, and color selections.
My assistant Joe Bednara gets all credit for custom color mixing, prefinishing and final finishing.
So I decided to post a photo documentary outlining the components and process steps being taken to achieve the final product. I Have over 20 photos so far which I may help others consider similar design elements, and strategies.
For starters The basic project is a blade hanging double sided sign with a secondary dangling dimensional sign on a custom made hanging bracket. Primary material for the entire sign is MEDEX with one dimensional relief made in HDU.
Finish is entirely polyurethane custom color mixed paints to insure a superb seal, vibrant colors, and long life.
Software used was V-Carve Pro.
The process in general is familiar to most of you but to confirm what we did here is as follows.
1) Carefully plan design with suitable cut strategies, finishing sequences, masking, sequences, color application sequences to achieve a multilayered dimensional sign.
2) Cut suitable oversized pieces of Medex on the table saw, prepaint both sides with the primary background color.(priming is unnecessary with the post catalyzed polyurethane material we use)
3) Mask the pieces(and there were many as you will see over the photos)
4) Cut on CNC.
5) Depending on the piece and the final color sequence, we often remasked certain areas, repainted the secondary colors, edges etc until all colors were applied, removing or adding masking as needed.
My plan is to post one photo a day with a brief explanation through completion.
Heres photo #1
This is the basic sign blank in the ugly duckling stage. Painted, masked, and over painted with assorted colors. There are 2 of these to be sandwiched together later with mounting hardware in between.
The text you see carved here is only for future raised letter positioning and allignment and will be covered by them. These are very shallow -.031 deep and cut inside the vectors so all layered pieces on top will be properly positioned.
This piece has masking on it and will be exposed with all colors after one more color is added.
The brown arows are trimmed in a black v carved well, the lower beige scroll work is also V carved, and the upper scrollwork is a darker blue, the brown upper rectangle will later have framing and multi dimensional/layered art added in other complimentary colors. Under the mask is a light blue.
Overall dimensions are 36" wide x 26" high on this main blank. Material is 3/4" thick MEDEX
I hope you enjoy it.
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[jhicks]

OK, I'm a little ahead of my original 1 a day but hope no one minds. Its just nice to see things start to come together as the masking removal starts to reveal those colors we havent seen in a while.
This is the ugly duckling after the masking material is removed. A couple things worthy of pointing out.

1) The holes you see drilled around the sign were done on the original CNC cut strategy. They are there to pre-allign the next layer of art and make it very easy to screw and glue the next layer of components in place from the back.
They will also be used to screw the two sides together around the outside edge. Those screw heads on the edges will be covered later with a raised dimensional border.

2) The 2 shallow V grooves mentioned in photo 1 to outline the letters,coffee cup,castle, and castle domed/rectanglar border now appear more clearly as they have contrasting paint color from secondary coats and/or a blue interior.

These grooves serve a dual purpose.
A) ease of letter/art allignment and assembly which will cover these areas and
B) they provide a relief under and inside the next layers outer boundaries for adhesive to flow into.
We will get some adhesive on the edges when the art is screwed and glued but this assures us of a good edge seal as well under the next dimensional layer. Any excess will be wiped away in final assembly.
The baby blue inside the letters and the castle inside the brown will be buried under the art as things come together with new layers and added colors.


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[blackhawk]

Jerry - This is great stuff. Please keep it coming. What exact masking are you using?

[procarve]

Looks like a pretty complicated piece of work Jerry - can't wait to see how it turns out.

Hope they are paying you well!

Bill
www.RocketfuelSigns.com (http://www.RocketfuelSigns.com)
(formerly procarve cnc)

[jhicks]

Thanks guys, The answer to the mask question Brad is principally we use avery mask which we did on some of these. But I ran out of mask and substituted some regular vinyl on some parts. Its the Green when/where you see it. I would never do that again. The material sat for quite a while waiting for me to resolve some issues and now that we are ready to remove it, its not easy and it leaves a rubber cement type gummy surface behind which we need to clean off with laquer thinner. Fortunately this paint is just so darn durable, it doesn't attack the surface.
Ok, these are shots of the CAFE dangler pieces which will hang below the main sign when assembled. The one with Green mask was applied after primary baby blue top and bottom, then cut with a 90 deg V along the vectors 1/2" deep shown here as raw edges, followed by the drill holes to mount the appliques from behind, then cut out which with tabs in place to develop the beveled edges on top 1/3rd and straight cut 1/4" edge to the bottom.
The baby blue piece below it is the cafe base piece painted with darker blue edges and mask removed.
The next row are the applique pieces which will be afixed on top of the baby blue base with and without mask on.
The row 2nd from bottom are the components with final paint and mask, bottom is after mask was removed.
White mask on the pointing hand/finger is Avery.
Strategy here was almost the same. Paint CAFE and SCROLL stock black and Hand creme,
mask and V carve interior V well of letters, scroll interior, and what is shown on the hand in black as very shallow details with 90 deg V.

Then the outer profiles again 90V and have individual pieces to finish. The mask over black base protects what ends up as the top flat black letter outline in CAFE and the Scrolls between the interior V and the exterior bevel.
Mask over creme protects the main hand and shirt cuff art to allow black outlines and edge detail.

With mask in place over black hand paint well of interior V cuts on Scroll, Cafe, and hand.
The edges of the scroll and Cafe are the same dark blue as the edge of the base so next step was.
Using painters tape, carefully mask over the now white and creme interior V cuts so as to leave only the beveled edges. The hand is black on details and edges so this step was not necessary for it.
After interior V is masked, spray dark blue on edges of both Cafe and scroll.
So these applique pieces will soon be joined to the bases and finally joined together on hardware much like the main sign panels sandwiching the hardware securely between both sides
Not well shown are predrilled holes which are there for applique attachment when we screw and glue together but the allignment is intentionally simple as you can see in the next close ups.


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[jhicks]

Too many photos for one post so here are the close ups of the components layered but not fastened. Just a dry fit for inspection and photos.
Critical detail in the design and cuts where straight cut outs on hands and scroll join/meet on inside top of base beveled edge for a clean transition between parts.No overlap extending beyond the base bevel.

The F and apostrophe in Cafe intentionally overhang the dangler panel so back of the exposed F on top and bottom is painted black, same as outline detail. Since each will be exposed from their opposing back sides between the C and A. separated by what will become 1,1/2" of air space from the layup of 2, 3/4" main panels.
All these components are 3/4" thick so the total thickness of this dangler will be 3.0" overall

Fun looking back on this and remembering all the thinking that went into it. Keep in mind that the masking and painting sequence was also coordinated to paint all the same colors at the same time. Didnt want to remix custom colors again so there was a spreadsheet of each component, its colors, its correlation to other parts and how to insure proper sequence would be used for max finishing efficiency.
That was interesting.

On the Hope they are paying well? The answer is yes. This village is our kind of village, the developer tells their property buyers we are the authorized sign supplier for merchant signs. They have an image to uphold by specific criteria and we are the ones they chose to make that happen. So each piece is an advertisement for us as well and we have 6 signs there now with lots of new retail space opening up. It's kind of a "you know it when you see it" thing and they want "the look" we deliver


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[procarve]

I really like the colors as well - very sophisticated and rich - I want to check out the cafe already! No one is going to expect a $1 cup of coffee here.

Bill
www.RocketfuelSigns.com (http://www.RocketfuelSigns.com)

[jhicks]

Happy Friday, here's another element of the design. These parts are the two layers that comprise the coffee cup that will be positioned on the botttom of the main sign panel between the V carved scrollwork in beige.
Pretty simple really.
The 1/2" thick black base exists to create two elements in the design. 1) Elevate the high point of the cup 1" above the base panel,and 2) create a complimentary black trim border with blue bevel edge around the cup for color accent to highlight and define the cup as colors and dimensional details merge into the baby blue base panel.
On the fabrication strategy its a simple 90 degree V carve beVel edge and final straight cut out matching the other components.
On finishing aspect, it's to simplify painting components and to fully seal the substrate against the elements.
The main base material was scuff sanded, painted black both sides, masked,cut beveled edges,straight edge cut out shape, sanded edges, then edges painted the same Van Dusen blue used elsewhere along the beveled edge, and mask removed to reveal the black top surface.
The Cup was machined, sanded and painted the beige, then hand masked inside the cup with blue painters tape to isolate the area to be painted the brown coffee. Which is not the same brown as the arrows but a lighter brown. Brush painted the coffee and removed painters tape.
On the assembly side this black base layer functions as a place under which we will screw and glue the two opposite panels together then screws will later be hidden by the overlay elevated black base and further elevated cup. Screw holes were drilled in base originally to later screw cup base from behind the panel. Adhesive will also be used between base and elevated black component and between the cup and the black base. Might use (VHB) Very high bond clear exterior double sided tape on the cup. Not sure just yet.
Thats it for now, enjoy

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[jhicks]

All of the above info should sufficiently describe the basic processes,methods, and materials used. So now we are in the dry fit, final assembly and clean up stage.
All the elements are applied on top of the base panel and elevated above it 1 or 2 layers including the raised beveled 2 color frames (blue and silver) around the castle and entire sign to create varying depths and dimension.
Metal bracket verticles are dadoed between the two sides and will be screwed, glued, and firmly fixed between the panels for a robust mechanical mounting.
So here are a couple shots of the final parts of one side prior to final hardware paint, glue, screw, and clean up to see what the final look will be like.
Quite a change from the ugly duckling stage and ready soon for prime time.
Coffee anyone?

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[procarve]

Really great looking sign Jerry - I appreciate all the thought that went into getting it to turn out so nice. Shopbot might want to update thier marketing materials for signmakers!

Bill
www.RocketfuelSigns.com (http://www.RocketfuelSigns.com)