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

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Forest lady - step by step

Peter's second sign of this series is a classic. The elf maiden on each side will be hand sculpted using sculpting epoxy. The main board will be routed from 30 lb Precision Board.

Forest Lady

Import the design and draw the shapes you will need.
Once you have your shapes drawn you can begin to create the reliefs.
Begin by creating a round relief for the inner shield shape.


 Modify your shield relief by raising the woman silhouette. 
 Modify the shield relief again by lowering the leaf shape.
 Add wood grain texture to the shield by applying a bitmap.
Create a new zero height relief for the ‘Forest  Lady’ text outline.
Then modify outline relief with the middle shield shape.
Next cut the outline into the shield by merging the outline relief with the shield relief.

 Now create a new zero height relief with the larger text outline.
  Merge the first outline relief with the second outline relief.
Modify your relief with the ‘Forest Lady’ text.

Combine the shield relief with the text relief.
Now create a zero height relief for the main section of the scroll.












Modify the scroll relief with the largest shield shape.
Modify the scroll relief with the ‘spirits of the sprites’ text.

Create two round reliefs for the scroll tails. 
Combine the shield and scroll reliefs.
The Forest Lady sign is now ready to toolpath.