New oval sign

[Jeff_Birt]

Just wanted to share my latest carving (unfinbished) . It's done in pine (working my way up to better more expensive stock). It took about 2 hours to carve and cut out on the machine. The ends of some of the letters chipped off and had to be fixed (which did not really take too long). I'm guessing that this might occure as badly with diffrent stock.



I bought some sanding sealer and tried a sample staining on a scrap piece of the pine 1/2 w/sanding sealer 1/2 w/o. Wow, what a diffrence. The sanding sealer really makes the pine stain much nicer.

[Bill]

Jeff_Birt,
Very nice, I like the layout and the way the text fits in with the shape of the sign.

[Jimmygee]

Any chance of getting the file so I can see how you did this ptoject? I am new to this and learn a lot by seeing how others do these and how they lay them out.
Thanks

[adriano]

Very nice layout, the sign looks great! I'd be interested in the file as well.

Mike

[Jeff_Birt]

I'm considering posting the file for the oval sign. After considering how it was laid out and how I did this desk sign for a friend who just got a position with Caterpillar,



I think there is a better way of laying out where the letters are pushed into the outer border.

Basically if you lay the text (or other object) out on a solid surface and set it to 1/4" or so deep you will have several areas in which some stock will be left in noooks and crannies, like the C in CAT. If you want an irregular area cut out around an object, place the object (text, etc) as normal and and set the feathering to 1/8 or 1/4 the resultant draft (bevel) gives you a nice outline to trace around.

For the CAT logo I started by drawing a rectangle around it (following the feathering outline) and then added vertexs and arcs (and moved thigns around) as needed to follow the outside of the feathering. Then you can turn feathering off and set you new object (the tracing) to carve the same 1/4" as you letters. You wind up with a nice pocket the follows the outline of you object. The best part is that the feathering tool gave you the basic outline to trace around.

BTW, the name sign was done in oak veneer ply as I was hoping the plys would resemble layers of strata as exposed by earthmoving equipment. The result is OK, but not great.

[Dan-Woodman]

Hey Jeff
Nice sign.
The place I work makes engine parts for cat.