Signs of Life

[Digitalwoodshop]

I have been working on a Sign project for a development and thought it was time to share.

I needed to emulate the past signs that were cut with a hand held router and the plastic guides, one letter at a time. I was stumped for a few days trying to come up with a font to emulate the look. Then after going through 1000 plus fonts on free sites I thought of something I had tried last year....

I ended up using the 3/8 inch cutting bit, Modern Font, and Outline. I set the spacing to 25, depth to .150 and away I went.... Worked perfect for 2 inch letters and I am betting a 1/2 inch bit would work for 3 inch high letters. Give it a try.....

Here are some pictures of last week's first delivery and another 29 in the works. Worked two 14 hour days this weekend and cut the last sign last night at Midnight.

Painting today... Back to work....

Here is a peek...

Plus I have a pending 3rd Fire Tag order to do next week with the other 2.....

Accounts Receivable is HAPPY....

AL

More pictures on my web site.

I know some of the signs are not correct using the 'S, but I leave it to the customer to make the choice.

[DocWheeler]

Those look great Al, I hope that the others are ordered!

[Ike]

Very cool Al too bad they did want to upgrade you would have even more signs to do! Then you wouldn't had looked so hard for a font and fix their grammatical errors and use an apostrophe correctly! I know you know Al, but if the customer wants to be incorrect they are paying you!

Still great work Chief!

Ike

[Digitalwoodshop]

The Sign Guy said they had 100 signs in back order but I think it is only this batch of 29.... Time will tell... I am still 6 weeks behind in my paid work...... More Hours in a day.... That is what I need.... Effective immediately 9 AM to Midnight just became 6 AM to Midnight..... Sleep is SO over rated....

I have already doubled my Gross Sales from last year and going strong.

Snicker...

AL

[RayTrek]

Thanks for sharing your assume work.
It is motivating and very informative and also look great.
Cheers to you.
Later-Ray

[Jvicaretti]

The signs look really good Al. I am sure they will be happy with them.

[Kenm810]

Here's A Lunch Brake at Al’s Shop on one of His 14 hour Days!! http://www.carvewright.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif

[Digitalwoodshop]

Very Nice !!!

I primed the signs today with my HVLP sprayer and WOW... That is the way to do it.... I just mixed up the letter white and as soon as I get the lights setup I am back at it.... Much better and easier than a brush and roller....

AL

Quitting early tonight... 9 PM

Slacker.....

[forqnc]

Great signs and way of overcoming and problem, couple of quick questions.

I see you said you are spraying them, but are you doing the white first then hand painting the brown or vise versa?
On "The" is it V carved or regular carved?

Great website also, I have browsed through it several times, and look forward to following more of you adventures. And if you are a slacker, then I am permanently in the position on Ken's Sign

[Digitalwoodshop]

I sprayed two light coats of primer on the letters with my HVLP. Then sprayed 4 light coats of the final latex white gloss on the letters. I am am going over them now touching up the white letters with a acid brush now. I will let it dry until tomorrow then sand the surface flush with my random orbital to bring the surface back to flush removing all the over spray gloss white. I won't use the thickness sander as the belts will clog and are more expensive then 5 inch disks. I keep used disks for just this task and blow through them quick, changing often. Then I use my 4 inch foam roller to prime all the surfaces with a light coat. I bought Clear Pine for the signs, a overkill but I saw one that had aged and the knots were showing through. Then I use a 4 inch foam roller to paint the brown. I found a trick last time that worked great. My paint pan liner still had dry primer and I didn't want to mess with the white flakes in the brown. I put brown in some plastic containers with lids and went to work painting. I dipped the roller end in the paint and then took a scrap 12 inch square piece of wood. Rolling the paint out like Ink on Glass at a Printer. This made a thin coat that with light pressure glided right over the letters with little to no brown in the letters. That is the easy way.... I will spray the primer on the 4 x 4's as I don't want the knots to show through later. I even filled the holes in the 4 x 4 with wood putty... I am doing this job as if I were doing it for myself.

As for the letters, the THE on an angle is V90 text. I did Carved Text on the first few for a flat bottom like the last guy did but with this batch I did V90. The main letters are flat bottomed using the 3/8 inch bit, Modern Text Font, Outline Mode and .125 Depth.

Thanks for the comments on my web site, it is what got me the invite to bid on the job. I turned down a 4 x 8 foot Vinyl Sign job from them today for 2 signs. I found my Supplier has cut deliveries to my area and UPS won't take a 4 x 8 sheet. I am in a dead zone of suppliers... Called a Neighbor who has a shop just over the boarder in New Jersey and is the last stop for my supplier. I asked my Customer to include my neighbor in the bid, I was bowing out. I am 6 weeks behind and my Fire Tag Guy www.signal1fire.com asked if I could do a 3rd order next week....

The smart thing is to know when to say NO to a job and when to say YES... I have the Vinyl Equipment but can't compete on shipping this time.

For anyone on the fence of setting up a web site know that if you can write and email and add a picture to it you have all the skills to build your own site. I built a Yahoo site and they offer all the tools to do it except spelling check.... Snicker.... I write my paragraph in a e mail to spell check it and copy and paste it in the area on my site. And all this for $11.00 a month... I have over 1700 hits on my site.

I Photographed some community events like a Fire Dept event and a Railroad Depot Dedication then put the pictures on the Wal Mart Photo web site and people can view the photos as a slide show and order prints. I put the link to Wal Mart on MY web site and put word out and that generated a few sign orders with people looking around.

OK... Must be the paint fumes.... I became a Chatty Cathy.... Can't shut me off....

Back to work....

AL

[forqnc]

OK... Must be the paint fumes.... I became a Chatty Cathy.... Can't shut me off....

Back to work....

AL
With detailed posts like that, you can chat all you want Al, thanks for the explanation, another great tip, I never thought about using a roller.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Time for another installment of "Signs of Life" in the Pocono's. Was looking over the Sawmill Creek Forum the other day and saw someone post about the Compucarve. I added my 2 cents from my prospective. Most of the guys on the CNC Forum at Sawmill are Shop Bot or similar users. I mentioned that asking a Cadillac driver what they thought of a Ford that they might not hear good things. But if all you could afford is a Ford and it took you to work for 3 years and then you could afford a Cadillac, life would be good. Ask the same former Ford owner what he thought of the Ford, you would most likely hear good things about the Ford. Sawmill is a Cadillac Forum and a darn fine one.... So I posted my feelings about the usefulness of a CarveWright.

This $2K+ project is a perfect example of what the CarveWright does WELL....

And with Christmas around the corner, I will dedicate one machine to make Christmas Ornaments next week.

The new Auto Cut Path feature will be GREAT for my Sublimation side of the shop. I have an order for an unusual shape Fire Tag that the new feature will cut nicely from FRP or Fiber Re-enforced Plastic on a carrier board. I won't even need to make a vacuum sled for the small parts with the tabs.

So back to "Signs of Life".... Finished mounting the signs under the glow of Quartz Lights for a delivery tomorrow. I am already getting calls for replacement signs and second signs for the other 3000 residence..... Perfect projects for the CarveWright..... The Little Machine that COULD....

AL :)Life is GOOD.:)

That old boat trailer has seen a lot of WOOD in the past 5 years....

[Ike]

Very nice Al!!! (even though your customer wanted grammatically incorrect signs :wink: snicker!!!) They look great you are the hardest worker I know!!

Remember always WWAD!!!!

Ike

[Digitalwoodshop]

I OWE, I OWE, so it is off to WORK I GO.....

Yes, I let the customer decide on the sign.... Snicker.... The Customer is always right.

Next big project, $2K+ in Fire Tags.....

Just got in 150 Blue and Green 911 Address sign blanks for Election Day.... Going to do another 13 hour day selling Home Address signs for the Fire Department.... Spring Election day was good but I expect to hit the jack-pot this time.... I only make $3.00 a sign giving the Fire Dept the bulk of the profit.... My Fire Dept.....

The Chief asked me if I could make the plastic name tag looking Fire Pump Control tags in different colors to match the colored hose.... I thought SURE..... I can do that.... A New product to market..... Must be more Fire Departments out there missing or wanting to change tag colors.... I could do a Epoxy Dome version too..... WOW.... See what I get going out to my one and only Social event every month.... The Fire Dept Meeting..... Plus they want a "Wheel Chock's Deployed" clip on sign too..... A few of them.... A NEW Product to market..... Plus they want 1000 reflective stickers...... WOW.... So much WORK.....

OK... 11:30 PM... Quitting time.


AL

[Ike]

Just remember Al, the customer is only right when you decide they are a customer!

Ike