Cutting Textured Background in Cypress?

[David Iannone]

Ok, I don't work with much cypress, but a company I do CNC routing for just called me and said he has got the job to replace all signage in Callaway Gardens and I'm gonna be doing all the cutting........

http://www.callawaygardens.com/

Yeah, I'm excited. I was a little down this morning due to the cloudy cold morning, but that call sure woke me up.

Anyhow, he said they want textured backgrounds on everything. I said "ok, I shouldn't tell you this, but it sounds like a sandblast job to me". He said he doesn't want to sandblast. Ok, I said bring me some wood and let me make some samples. So that is where we are at.

Anyone cut any textures in cypress? Maybe I flat bottom carve about .25 deep, then spray backround with shelac, then cut texture in it? The only thing I have cut in cypress was flat bottom carved signs for him.

Good timing to be finishing up my vac hold down table

Thanks,
Dave

[David Iannone]

Just got a small piece of the wood handed to me and this drawing of what some will look like. Will be a lot of small directional signs like this as well as large signs. I think I need to stick with a basic large texture. Gonna make 4 sample textures with one letter in each. Will time each sample machine time. The two borders will be left raised, unmachined

This will be the first large production texture job I will take on. I am thinking charge $20 sq/ft just to cut. I get this price from Harbor Sales in MD. They used to do all my CNC cutting before I got my Bot. That is their wholesale pricing for texture carves. Too cheap? Remember I am just doing one small portion (and in my opinion the easiest part) of this job.

They supply wood, they supply vector files. With tool path templates and vac hold down I should be able to be pretty efficient.

[scottp55]

Congrats Dave, Not much Cypress in Maine except maybe my Snake, and a small slab I've never touched.
Hope someone can help tell you how it Carves for Textured surface, seem to remember "stringy"? Wonder if a coating of finish/sanding sealer after pocketing might help before cutting Texture?
"Hard telling...Not knowing"
scott
Good luck and watch cutting times on protos.

[Bob Eustace]

Stop worrying Dave - its gorgeous stuff to machine - use it almost daily. Biggest problem is its prone to checking and it can be brittle. Zero problems with signage though. It never gives a furry finish!

[scottp55]

Sounds good for outdoor signs
Wonder at the "light Passes" under workability?
http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-...woods/cypress/

[joe]

When a client say "we want a textured background" who knows what they have in mind.

What's the colors? Is this a natural stain?

Do you have one of their signs for comparison?

[David Iannone]

Bob,
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I am looking forward to this one. I will be posting as the process goes along.

Scott,
Thanks, I read the link. I am cutting the sample tomorrow. I plan to try 4 different patterns, and I will be timing the cut times, as well as trying some different bits.

Joe,
You are correct. When he dropped off the sample wood I asked him about textures. I said how about a rock texture? (I just wanted to see his reaction) He said no, just something simple.....LOL. I don't know the colors. On other jobs he will bring the stuff pre painted and masked. Or sometimes not even primed. He just said to make up some samples. He is a good customer of mine and been doing business with him for 3 years now. I know, not a lot to go on, but here is what I'm thinking. First issue is that logo on a directional sign that is so small. So I figure I will work my texture out from there. It has to work with such a small logo. It could end up the logo is raised and flat with vinyl lettering applied at the last step? Not sure. But I am about to start playing in Aspire here in the next few minutes. By the end of day tomorrow I will have samples cut for him and my recomendations on how I would like the job to go.

Dave

[David Iannone]

So after some back and forth with the customer I decided to work up some renderings in Aspire and send them to him and let him pick first before I just started machining samples.

They decided on the attached texture. I am gonna cut the sample texture this weekend.

This is "Bush1" texture that came with Aspire.

Dave

[joe]

David,

Perhaps you have more experience with Cypress than I do but it seems to me it can come in different densities. The panel below was soft and gave me fits.

Can you make small 3d signs affordable?

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Joe

[David Iannone]

Joe,
Very little experience with Cypress. Only Cypress I have ever cut was other panels this guy supplied me for other flat bottom carving. The sign you show looks clean to me. So far on the flat bottom cuts I have done for him it machines ok. I always do my profile pass first on area clears.

The price is a good question. Wondering the same thing myself. I am gonna try my best to get all the cutting on this job, while not underselling myself either. I will post as things go along, or if they don't like the sample and price I submit on Monday.........

My Bot sits idle most of the time in the back room. I am fixing it up for more of a production setup. I hope to see a day when I come in at 9am, flip the switch on the Vac hold down, start the machine cutting on long cut files. While the Bot is cutting I am in the front shop running digital printer, plotter etc. I am just a one guy small shop at the moment and my main business is printing and vinyl cut stuff, but things can always change in a matter of a year or two of proper planning and focus. That is me right now. As determined as ever to start making money off the machine that has had very little use over the years.

Dave