Thanks!

[ed_conley]

We started making signs about a year ago and want to say a big hearty thanks for all the advice that's been passed along from you the experienced sign makers. Here is one we just finished and I welcome any constructive advice.
5793 It's an inlay piece, gold leaf paint with a Shefield clear top coat. I used ArtCam to produce the 3-d inlays. Sign is approximately 48"x30" on the oval. We are doing more just like it and have some smaller v-carve signs in the works with the same project. Finding it difficult and time consuming to paint the v-carve and have yet to try the sticky stuff (mask).

[jay]

Beautiful sign, I wish we could post bigger pictures.

Ed, the mask is the only way to go for V-carving. Follow Dale's advice. What a time saver.

[billp]

Jay,
I've found the trick to get larger pix on the Forum (such as last week's humpback whales) is to first reduce the size of the image to just under 400 pixels on the largest side (I tend to do 399). THEN I use something like "Image Ready" ( the specific tool is called "save for web") which is part of the Adobe Photoshop suite ,to knock down that image to just under 10k...

[gerald_d]

Bill, this Forum can handle up to 25k now. It was increased from the original 10k.

[robtown]

You should be able to resize the image directly from the "save for web" interface thus saving a step. There is a resize image tab in the interface window right below where you select what type of file you wish to make...

[billp]

Rob,
Thanks! I never even noticed that tab, it sure makes the process easier.
I just applied it to the following pix of a job I did last week for another sign company. I have to confess that the only 'Bot cutting I did on this one was to shape the initial profile of the styrofoam blanks I than glued them up into a 24" by 24" block which was 32"tall. The desired shaped had such a large amount of undercut that I simply used a "sawzall"and sculpted the shape from the bottom/inside.
After that I used FSC-88 (water based) to coat the surface, and then brushed on two coats of MAS epoxy resin. I topped that off with a gloss white marine polyurethane paint, as they wanted that "Colgate" shine on the surface, and it is going to be hung on the outside of a building.
The second picture shows how I bored a hole for the PVC pipes which had to be epoxied into the piece so they could then be slipped over two 'receiver'pipes which would protrude from a bracket mounted on the building itself. I just cut "teeth" onto a length of PVC pipe and made a manual drilling rig (actually a manual hammer drilling rig as I had to hammer it a few times, turn it, hammer it again, etc.,etc.).In retrospect I should have bored these holes BEFORE coating the damn thing....
And the last shot shows how the PVC pipes were inserted, and then epoxied into place...
Gerald,
Thanks for the tip on larger file sizes, it will make it easier to post pix that people can SEE...
5794
5795
5796

[ed_conley]

Trying to find the tab you mentioned to get a better size on the picture, but can't find it. I'm clicking the "upload attachment" but don't see any other buttons identified as "save for the web" to click. Had to go into my HP Image to resize. The origingal picture was a very high resolution shot but due to making it so small you really can't see much. I had to work it down about 3 times before the error message went away. I must be missing something, it's too cumbersome this way. Anyway here is another undersized picture.
5797

[beacon14]

cropping closely helps a lot also - no sense wasting any of those 400 pixels on background - even though many of us enjoy the free peeks into each others' shops when we get them.

[gerald_d]

Ed, jpeg files get big if showing grass and leaves (lots of tiny colour changes). You would do a lot better if you crop your pic close around the sign first.

Oops, cross-posted with David above.

[ed_conley]

Got it. Thanks. Will give it a try on the next project