More HDU Marketing Sample Signs

In between "learning things" and "dealing with things", I've been accumulating a few more marketing sample signs for that side of my business which is soon to go live. Here are a few more that have been completed.

A small idea for personalized signs for a kids room...name or initials

https://raewwq.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none

https://qwewwq.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none


House sign featuring 3D contour plus a "bronze" plaque look...I really, really like this one

https://sgewwq.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none

Large "farm" sign...painted, masked for v-carve and then lettering colored prior to removing the mask. 3D appliqué cut separately and applied. I'm guessing that something like this would be gilded in real life. (30" wide)

https://sqewwq.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none

Very nice Jim. I really like the Fantasy Farm sign.

Very nice signs and good marketing. I assume the knurl texture is real and not a paint feature. How long did it take to cut? You are much better at the painting than I. Thanks for posting.

Agreed. Nice work. Would love to know approximate machine times on the 3d stuff like the horse applique. Is the profile on the number sign 3d carved? What mask are you using?

Great work

Jim, you're advancing very quickly.
I have Jim's permission to offer some more "helpful hints" ...... I always worry about my "constructive" criticism being construed as "just plain ole" criticism.....
#1 Jim, it appears you might be using a 60* bit to do the deep chamfer on the inside of your border wall ( no, not THAT kind of wall LOL) It is making your border look a bit "weak". Might I suggest make a wider border, & use that bit to put in an "inline" set back 1/4" from the edge of your pocket ....... only go about 1/4" deep with it. You don't have to paint it a different colour .... if you use a lighter coloured border, it will appear darker anyway, because it'll always be "in shadow."
If you're worried about "easing the sharp edge", just go around it with a wee piece of 320 grit ..... it doesn't take much
#2 on the V-carved "Fantasy Farm" sign .... you should have more "surface" showing in between the letters. Either your bit is cutting a couple of thou too deep, or the font is too "tight" for this application. I have another solution, put a "contour" inside the lettering & cut from that, but I have no idea how to do that in Aspire. I design in CorelDraw & export in .eps
#3 If you have some low angle V-bits, do a prism carve on your raised lettering. A 140* bit works well for this.. This doesn't always look good ( depends upon the font), but your preview will show you that. OR ... in some cases, it's better to add a doming resin .... Precision Board's PB Resin is awesome. You just have to be careful, again, it's the font, because a really tight angle ( like at the top of the triangular "hole" in an upper case "A", the epoxy will run in there, if you get too much on. I refer to this as a "runny crotch" & nobody wants to clean that up LOL

On the questions about the textured background, I'm using Rodger's technique to produce it and it's "darn quick" and easy. It's basically two pocketing tool paths that are identical with the exception of the raster angle which has one positive and one negative; both 35º in these examples. The step-over is set to 91º. The first path doesn't have any finishing pass; the second takes care of that. One bit...a .125" ball nose...for the whole thing. You cut the pocket and the text at the same time as you're doing the texturing. It's MUCH faster than setting up a texture tool path in addition to cutting the rest separately. And with HDU, you can do this aggressively even with the small cutter. One pass for 1/4" or even 3/8" at 200 ipm is a piece of cake. I believe I posted this example before, but it shows some play with the angles:

https://txbxpw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none

Rodger, thanks for your comments and suggestions. You are correct that I used a high angle v-bit for the inside of the edge bevel. I was trying to soften the look more than just breaking the edge, but it indeed loses some weight the way I did it. On the farm sign, the "Fantasy Farm" text was cut with a 120º v-bit and I agree it feels a little crowded. This was a standard VCarve Pro v-carve tool path and maybe with this particular font (one of Steve's), it might be better with the 90º to provide better spacing without stretching it horizontally. I did kern the text before cleaning up the vectors, but I guess you don't really know how it's going to cut until you do it, especially for someone inexperienced. I like the idea of the prism carving thing...it's on my list to try. 120º is as low as I can go on the bit side right now, however.

More to learn for sure!

Jim, a different bit won't make a difference V-carving. It's going to cut until the edges of the bit touch the letter's vector outline. ..
If the font doesn't show enough "space" .... just raise your "zero Z", up .04" & run the file. If you think it should be deeper, just drop it back by .01 or whatever & run it again until you're happy with it.
I can tell you how to adjust it right in the file in Coreldraw, but not in Aspire. The aforementioned method will work, though. Just look closely at your preview.

Thanks, Rodger. I'll check that out to see what adjustments I can make. Good point about it going to cut to the edge no matter what..."D'oh!"