Senior Member
Does anyone have experience with painted signs using the Urethane Foam, painting the raised (uncut) portions one color and the routed portions a separate color? I know there must be straightforward ways to do this, as I see it all the time on sandblasted signs. We are not in the full-time sign business, but do a few here and there and are ready to try the urethane foam, and I am hoping we can get a head start on the learning curve. Thanks for any suggestions.
I am very interested in this topic, not because I want to cut these type signs with my ShopBot (I build musical instruments with mine) but because I want to try to help my wife's employer find a source for getting these plastic sheets cut for a display unit that they sell. If anyone has the capability to cut a company logo (outline, mainly) in plastic, so a signmaker can then cut vinyl letters to paste inside of it, I'd like to hear from you. Presently, the company she works for is getting these done by the manufacturer of the unit in Denmark and the shipping alone is over $500! I'd like to help her find a source in the US. My name is Lynn Dudenbostel and my e-mail address is knoxdude@usit.net. If you can help, let me know. They are willing to pay to get these done here.
Edge lighted signs
I have been playing around with methods to edge light a Plexiglas sign. Typesetter was used to carve a string in a 11.5 inch by 6.5 inch 1/4 inch thick Plexiglas sheet, with rounded corners. Small holes were drilled around the perimeter and a 36 inch long, 3/8 inch diameter Flexilight attached using cable ties. It works pretty well and will look better when I come up with a good frame to cover the light source. A couple of pictures are on my web site http://members.aol.com/tesarna/
Senior Member
Mr. Dreiling,
That is pretty neat! Here is another idea
(complements of Delcam/Artcam people). Take your
favorite photograph, scan it in, and then
"mirror" image the scan. Now use the Tif2Sbp
converter to generate a shallow 3D image. Cut
that image on a white peice of plexi or other
semi opaque material. When that is finished,
shine a 30 watt lamp behind the image.
What you will see is a direct light image of your
photograph. The thicker sections of the plastic
will block most of the light while the thinner
sections will be brighter.
Anyways, it makes a really cool effect.
Bruce Clark
bwclark@centurytel.net
Where do I get the Tif2sbp converter?
Bob Grim
It is in the beta2b14 release under a different name. I think it is UX_tiff.exe, but you can access it from the ux command in shopbot. The software will choose the tiff converter if you are using a 8 bit grayscale image with the .tif extension. Look in the users manuel and find some hints on its proper operation by Bruce Clark.
I did Marks lighted sign idea in 3/8" acrylic. It looks better from the reverse side, which brings up the question about Typesetter (using Windows version), can the lettering be reversed? By the way, the Rosette tutorial from Mark is a big help in learning Vector.
Ken,
I already did this and it works great. You don't need Vector to mirror image the sign. When you load your program, set the X scale factor in Shopbot to minus 1 (-1). It will mirror the X axis and give you what you want.
instead of the Flexlight you might want to consider Neon Lights from BeingSeen (http://www.beingseen.com). these are glowing wires that could be laid around the perimeter to side light the engraved acrylic or laid into a routed path (1/8" wide) in an opaque material (wood, plastic, etc.). they can be powered by AA batteries or an AC adapter. the power supply from Being Seen can be set to flash or constant on for different effects. battery life is about 40 hours for continuous use. the wires are covered with vinyl tubing and can be secured with hot melt glue or tape.
da
David Allen: I have some of the "Being Seen" units here at the shop. They do exactly as you mentioned. I tried to sell them to the OHP for nightime visibility for roadside stops, but the troopers weren't interested. They are very versatile and very bright. If you help me remember to do so, we can do a project at my camp in March, and use them as you suggested. Looking forward to seeing you again....
Doug Strickland
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