Need help with a sandblasted look using a CNC

[art allison]

I need to make a sign using Sign Foam. Customer wants a sandblasted look in the backgound. I've seen signs made out of signfoam that were routed and looked like it had been sandblasted.

I've got Enroute3 Pro and had planned on using a texture bitmap. Problems is so far, I have not round a bmp that works well. Can anyone recommend a bmp, be nice enough to send me one, or tell me where I can buy one?

What cutters do you use? I was thinking on a .125 ball end and a 120 degree v bit. I wanted to pay around and see what works.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Joe Pelonio]

Art,

I do sandblasted, but have also done smaller ones on the laser with that sandblasted look. I found a texture in Corel that worked nicely, set it up with 2 different grays. I know nothing about CNC bits, though I'd guess it has to be a pretty small tip.

I can't share the one I use, it's close to 8MB.

[Larry Bratton]

I need to make a sign using Sign Foam. Customer wants a sandblasted look in the backgound. I've seen signs made out of signfoam that were routed and looked like it had been sandblasted.

I've got Enroute3 Pro and had planned on using a texture bitmap. Problems is so far, I have not round a bmp that works well. Can anyone recommend a bmp, be nice enough to send me one, or tell me where I can buy one?

What cutters do you use? I was thinking on a .125 ball end and a 120 degree v bit. I wanted to pay around and see what works.

Any help would be appreciated.

Art:
The ones you saw, probably were. Their is a device called a Grain-frame that you put on top of the sign foam and then sandblast it. I've got one around here somewhere. Once done, it looks amazingly like a sign that was made totally by sandblasting.

[Neal Schlee]

Art,

Try this link for 150 wood textures: http://tinyurl.com/2499k5
With some experimentation you should be able to do what you're after.
A .125" ball mill will work, if it's a rough grain you might try a rough cut pass with a .25" end mill to hog out area's the .25" bit will fit in, Enroute3 will do this. If it's a large sign it will take awhile with the .125" ball mill, your step over will determine detail. You could post at the Enroute3 forum http://www.scanvecamiable.com/forum/default.asp for more info on using a bitmap as a carved background.

Neal