Building a woodgrain 3d file.

[joe]

This is a comparison of materials and techniques used in my shop.

My SB purchase came before the advent of Vetric or Aspire. At that time there were few affordable software programs on the market. With a small little computer using Corel and Flexisign our files were saved in DXF format and sent to the router. It was a simple easy process. Although the router was slow and had plenty of glitches, it was a rich learning process. I'm glad I got my start that way.

We had no idea there would ever be 3D carving programs or that we could ever do what we're doing today. No vinyl sign although we do apply a little on our carved panels.

Vertical grain, sandblasted, redwood and yellow pine renders a a beautiful natural image. And the amount of detail is un-limited. I'm not suggesting anyone move in that direction. There are too many down sides. Blasting is dangerous, manual labor. It takes lots of air. We used a 165 CFM twin screw. I think that's the minimum. Today
sandblasting is sent out. That's an affordable way of getting the work done.

The photo below showing Gary Beckwith's Studio sign was done on 18lb HDU. This was carved during one of my workshops. We started painting the panel but time it was a squeeker to finish it up.

Building a perfect wood grain file: The wood planks shown have been sandblasted then photographed. I have dozens of these jpg files. It's a very creative process using the camera. I look for interesting textures of bark, rust, sand drifts, gravel, or just about anything that catches my eye. Once in Aspire you can choose the grain depth. To me that's more fun than buying someone's pre-mail pattern.

At one time we used HDU. It's expensive, gritty, and requires special attention when screwing, and painting. I've posted lots of failures due to hail damage. All that said, it's still, in my opinion, best when used for 3D carving on smaller objects.

Today most of my work is done on PVC. It's tough and easy to paint. The down side, you must learn a whole new set of finishing techniques. PVC doesn't carve well with a chisel but you can use a variety of burs and sanding wheels. Painting is a snap. No primers needed.

I'm aware we don't have many sign artists on this forum but someone might get an idea or two.

Joe

[Tom Bachman]

so, do you just paint the grain on the carved material to look like the real wood? Isn't that a bit tedious? Do have a picture of the sign after it was painted? This is very interesting and intriguing to me.

[chiloquinruss]

This is a rendering of Joe's bottom jpeg run through Aspire. I have used almost every trick Joe has posted and they are all awesome. Russ

[Tom Bachman]

I guess I'll have to give that a try! Thanks to both Joe and Russ.

[chiloquinruss]

Played some more and now I'm going to bed, night all! Thanks Joe. Russ

[tri4sale]

I'm aware we don't have many sign artists on this forum but someone might get an idea or two.

Always like your posts, very educational, now just need to learn how to paint so I can become a sign artist

[joe]

Russ,

Thanks for the excellent examples. Also thank your for your support over the years.

Daniel,

Painting textured backgrounds is strait forward. Once in a while I'll use the touch-up gun to darken down a border area but aside from that it's just painting as usual.

One of my pix shows Ron with a spray gun. He now does all my routing. I've also snuck in a pix of one of my workshops. Those were so much fun. We had attendance from Canada to Florida and everyone was totally exhausted by the end. There's so much to cover we stretched our time late into the nights.

Joe

[guitarwes]

Joe, I gotta tell ya, you're a good man. People can keep knowledge to themselves or gift knowledge to others to have it carry on. I enjoy each and every one of your posts and learn much from them. You can count the seeds in a orange but you can't count the oranges in a seed. Thanks for sowing seeds for us.

[joe]

Wes.

Thanks for the kind words. Reading complements like yours is encouraging. I

t's important to understand there's a complement of skills in this craft. One of them is routing but that only touches one edge of the potential techniques. A fellow can spend a lifetime discovering all the techniques in finishing and fabrication and never reach the end. That's what keeps me going. Each time I apply a seldom used technique and if it brings a panel life, bells and whistles go off.

So once again thank you!

Joe