Some HDU stuff

[GlenP]

Hey all. Just shipped out this sign to a wholesale customer. Done in 15 lb Corafoam. It is going to be mounted to a wall but still routered out and added a wood backer to stiffen it up.

[dlcw]

Nice job!

I'm getting ready to do a small HDU project and this gives me inspiration to move forward.

Let me know how the finishing goes and what finishes, paints, sealers, etc. you use. I am a firm believer in "never create what you can beg, borrow or steal".

[wberminio]

Nice Job,Glen

Please post some photo when it is finished!

[GlenP]

Thanks guys. The customer is a sign shop so they will be painting it themselves. They are going to be using shades of blue, cream for the lettering outline and gold leafing for the letters. Should look good. They will send me pic and I will post when I get it. The texture background I did a technique I got from another botter named Paco. Remember him...great guy from Quebec. It uses two texture toolpaths, the first one has longer strokes and wider offsets and the second uses smaller strokes and closer offsets with greater variation. The customer loved the look. I did order the textures dvd from Dan Sawatzky last week so it should be fun for some cool backgrounds.

Don - When ever I have had to paint HDU is use Benjamin Moore Fresh Start primer. I usually give two coats to give a nice base on the HDU. I then use BM 100% acrylic top coats. I never use glossy paint as I think it only looks bad very quick and shows every little thing. You can use foam brushes for the acrylic. I haven't done allot of the paint work yet and stilll learning. I have a buddy that does allot of HDU work and he use the same primer but likes Porter paints for his top coat. You should be able to get it in the USA. He is here in Ontario Canada and drives down to the states to get a truck load to last him a while. He mixes most of his own colours. The hardest thing about HDU is mounting as it doesn't hold screws well. easy fix if you mount a backer to it. My buddy uses 3/4" MDO on all backers as he finds anything thinner tries to warp too soon. When he is mounting between posts he uses metal between two layers of HDU gorilla glues together.

[tracys]

Are those letters cut separate then pocketed in, or did you do the background just really close to the edge of the letters.

[GlenP]

The background is pocketed out around them. It is all from one chunk of hdu. I did a profile cut around the letters with a 1/8" bit. background texture is right to the edge of letters.

[Rahim]

I’m new to forum and trade ... your Corafoam sign came out very nice!

I tried to google and locate any supplier for Corafoam in Houston area but had no luck. Called the Dura Inc in Baytown and they gave number of vendor which doesn’t carry this product. Can you help point in direction where I can buy it. Any place which may sell it online?

Cheers!

[GlenP]

Here is a picture of the final finishing and painting. I did not paint this sign as it was done by a wholesale sign shop customer.

[joe]

Excellent work my friend.

I like the layout, routing and finishing.

I've found painting and gilding takes a much time or more than the carving. For that reason I've gone to Duna 20lb. However if the clinet wants to do the finish work, I'd use just about any HDU.

Joe

[GlenP]

Thanks Joe. I have to give credit to my wholesale sign customer as he did the layout and finishing. I added the 3d tree and heron instead of the flat one he originally designed and he left the textured background up to my discretion. I used Paco's tip for the textured background of doing two background toolpath's. One with large stepover and longer strokes and then second one with shorter stepover and shorter strokes. I do have Dan Swatzky's texture magic and am looking forward to having some time to make some cool and fun backgrounds.