Professional Sign Board Material

[SJF]

Has anyone tried or is currently using any of the non-wood sign material with the carvewright system. Other than the higher cost of material I'm interested in what some of the pros and cons might be.

Thanks!!!

[mtylerfl]

Yes, several folks have tried professional dense foam sign material and report excellent results. If I recall, the foam "dust" can "cling" and is more of a challenge to clean out of the machine. Only other thing is the possibilty of needing special coatings to seal the foam before final finishing, if memory serves. Your sign foam supplier can educate you more on the details, I assume.

[CraigBrownDesigns]

Some of the folks here have posted site addresses that'll send you free samples of their product. I received 3 densities of SP2 and some general information that expanded the possibilities for sign making. I also found the suppliers in the area very helpful and showed me materials I hadn't considered before.

[Dhaffner]

"showed me materials I hadn't considered before"...
yes..yes? like what? :)

[Dirtydan]

Has anyone tried or is currently using any of the non-wood sign material with the carvewright system. Other than the higher cost of material I'm interested in what some of the pros and cons might be.

Thanks!!!

The material carves very nice, but the machine clean-up is a pain. The carving leaves a sand like material that gets everywhere even with a good dust collection system. Be sure to remove the protective covers from the rollers and clean them very good. Failure to do so will cause pitting on the guide rails and bigger problems if un attended.

End results are good, but the material is very costly (makes Corian look cheap) and in some locations hard to find. I had to special order mine and could only get it in a 4' x 8' sheet.

[Rick P]

I have used SignFoam3 http://www.signfoam.com/index.html
It carves great and with my down draft it did not seem to leave all that much dust. I bought a 15lb. 4ft x 8ft x 3/4in sheet at $207...expensive...the 1/2in 15lb. sheet is $157. This gets used only for special projects.

The 10lb. density is cheaper, but does not carve quite as nicely. The 18lb. density is overkill for signs and more expensive.

I got free samples of each density to experiment with.

[Ken Massingale]

Has anyone tried or is currently using any of the non-wood sign material with the carvewright system. Other than the higher cost of material I'm interested in what some of the pros and cons might be.

Thanks!!!


I've used Extira for several projects, large and small. It mills well, kinda like MDF so it's messy. The 1/2" thick is around $70 for a 4 by 8 sheet.

[Kenm810]

Here’s a little Info I received for SignFoam at the end of January 2009

Quote: form Email
Subject: SignFoam
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:07:26 -0800

Hi Ken,

Hope I am not interrupting your day but I have a quick question.
What size sheets are the people in the CarveWright / CompuCarve looking for 1.5” x 2’ x 4’?
Reason being we are planning to sell small sheets from our website and would like to have the optimum size.

Thank you
Rick Cooper

My Reply

Hi Rick,

The CW and CC Machine can cut projects up to 14.5" wide and several feet Long, the largest I've carved was 14" X 48".
But I have cemented or glued two pieces together to make a finished Sign with Text and Graphics at 28" x 48".
Also our Machine normally carves only .75" to .80" Deep so most of the stock we carve is .50" to 1" Thick.

I favor the .75 as being the most versatile for my machine, even though we can fit stock up to 5" Thick in the Machine.
I think .05", .75", 1", X 2' x 4' would work the best for most folks with these Machines.

Thanks for Asking
Ken

Give them a call to see if they've started selling the smaller sized sheets. http://forum.carvewright.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

[Dirtydan]

Has anyone ever carved on Granite or Marble? If the answer is YES…. What kind of projects did you make? How did the bits hold up? Idea’s!!!!!! :confused:

[locovalley]

Has anyone ever carved on Granite or Marble? If the answer is YES…. What kind of projects did you make? How did the bits hold up? Idea’s!!!!!! :confused:

Dan, I carve signs in all kinds and sizes of stone but I use plastic stencils, cut on a plotter, and a sandblaster to do the carving. As far as using the CW to carve stone...No way, Jose. If you could do it, it would be like sandblasting the inside of your machine. JMHO

Joe

[Dirtydan]

Thanks for the reply Joe....

I have a friend who sandblast various stone media, while it is a great 2D representation of a design, it's not 3D like you would get with the CW. Laser is another way, but I don't want to put a bunch of cash into something I would only use once in a while...



Dan, I carve signs in all kinds and sizes of stone but I use plastic stencils, cut on a plotter, and a sandblaster to do the carving. As far as using the CW to carve stone...No way, Jose. If you could do it, it would be like sandblasting the inside of your machine. JMHO

Joe

[Rick P]

Ken M -
Can you describe more about how you used Extira ... did you carve it? ... do cutouts? ... how dusty is it? ... can you sand it and paint it?

Maybe I should just look for their website :-)

[Ken Massingale]

Ken M -
Can you describe more about how you used Extira ... did you carve it? ... do cutouts? ... how dusty is it? ... can you sand it and paint it?

Maybe I should just look for their website :-)

Rick,
Here (http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?t=8327&highlight=extira) is a thread on a large project using Extira. I used centerline on this project, I've used Extira for normal carving also. It machines great. It is dusty so dust collection is a must. It takes paint great, just use the recommendations for paint on the Extira web site.

[CraigBrownDesigns]

Nicely done! I'll be making signs for my Father-in-Laws new pub and have been trying to figure the best way to make a larger sign. I'd seen a large backer piece made and routed then with the smaller sign carved pieces mounted to the face of it in layers. I really like how you've seemlessly put that sign together!