WELCOME!

It is hard to believe that it was almost ten years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one of these machines - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Along with the CNC router I discovered the wonderful material called Precision Board and the glues, primers and other companion products they offer. Since then we have gone through many tons of the material using it in most signs and projects we tackle. This journal will chronicle our many adventures both past, present and future. I'll talk from the perspective of someone who pushes these products to the creative limit on a daily basis. I'll be adding to the stories two or three times each week. -dan

Sunday, June 13, 2010

California gold rush

I had some difficulty coming up with an idea for the panel for Gary. He is traveling from central California and after some thought and scribbling of endless ideas in my book I decided on a period 'gold rush' feel to the panel. David Butler Gold vector collection of classic ornaments was used as a starting point in the decorative border in the vector design. The lettering has that same gold rush feel. and is a font from www.letterheadfonts.com
The letting would be deeply bevelled with some 'sandblasted' woodgrain behind. I used a woodgrain bitmap from my collection to achieve that look. The file was much larger than I needed (as often happens). The area in the dotted red lines was the tiny portion used for this project.
The panel looks complex and difficult but is actually pretty simple. Once I had all the relief elements created and then positioned vertically to my satisfaction I then merged everything together to make the final relief.
This was tool pathed using a 3/8" ball nose bit with a 1/8" ball nose for the final pass. Then it was sent to the MultiCam to make my imagined piece real in well under an hour from start to finish from a piece of 1.5" 30 lb Precision Board. I have one more panel to go before I break out the primer and paint...
-dan
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