Woodland Pines

Leo Voisine

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5,703
Location
East Freeetown, Massachusetts
I have not done this in a while.

I was asked to make a sign locally - so I jus thought I would post progress on this project.

This project has a time frame I need to meet, so I will be pretty diligent with it. I need to finish it before the customer moves back to Colorado.

In addition to "making" the plaque, I am also practicing my salesmanship skills, which is part of my interest. I will refrain from calling this a hobby business venture, but here we are. I also have some craft fair activities going on this weekend as well as at the start of some structural work on my house and entertaining the grandkids. It's a REALLY bust weekend.

So with no further ado.


preview.jpg

I start a project with design conceptualization.
This is some communication with the customer about their desires and expectations.
Usually that don't really know what they want or what size or what price.
It takes me about a half hour to get past most of the confusion, past the money, and into a broad concept.
Shown above is the final and 3-rd rendition of the plaque.


Is was decided, at my recommendation to use HDU. Best choice for this sort of project
I will use 2 square feet. 24" wide and 12" tall and 1" thick.

BTW - this project is within the possibilities of Vectric Desktop V-Carve.

woodland pines-1.jpg

This is the material blank.
I already had this in my inventory
It is 24" wide and 96" long.
I just mounted it on the machine and setup my programming zero in center of the sign

woodland pines-3.jpg

First process was to pocket the area shown
Uses 1/4 end mill for the large clearance - 375IPM, 8,000 RPM, 1/2 DOC - 10 minutes
Uses 1/8 end mill for the small areas - 375 IPM, 8,000 RPM, .06 DOC - 90 minutes
On the 1/8 end mill, I should have been at least .250 on DOC - that would have cut in half or better.
Ohh well - next time

Right now the machine is running - making the trees. Elapsed time is 2:11 and about 40% completed.
 
Hi,

Sorry for not posting the in between progress pics, but I just get so busy, and age does not allow me to be energetic enough.

Anyway, here is the rest of the story. I finished the painting this morning. I still need to make a bracket, but that will not take long.

I tracked ALL time involved including emails, design, machining, primer, painting - everyting.

TOTAL time so far. Well is depends if I call CNC time at full time of is I just call it 25% I am happy to call it 25%, but yes Rob, I know that's not really a good business practice. Still it works out. I am making between $30 - $64 depending on the method. I still need to make a bracket. Time in it is either 8 hrs or 16 hrs. depending if I call the CNC time in for full.

So with no further adieu - this is the completion of the story

woodland pines-4.jpg

Machining on the trees definitely took the longest time of all.

woodland pines-5.jpg woodland pines-6.jpg

I applied 3 heavy coats of Jay Cookes Sign Primer. I used that chip brush in the picture and I stipled the paint. Not brush strokes, I just pounded the primer on by stabbing the surface. That pounds the paint in and creates a nice textured surface.

woodland pines-7.jpg

I mix my own colors from primary colors. When I went out to the Indiana Sign Camp Jamie and Jody Oxenham, as well as Dan Sawatsky were the trainers. WOW - talk about some ultra high level teachers. But they taught - wow, did they teach.

woodland pines-8.jpg

The trees are all glazed with several layers of colors to get the look and appeal of a tree. I don't know about you, but I think they came out pretty nicely.

woodland pines-9.jpg

Here it is all nice and finished with painting all done.
 
She's a beauty, Leo. Your customer is going to be very happy.:thumb::thumb: I know your client blessed the design, but I gotta confess this font does not distinguish between o's and a's very well. Every time I look it turns into Waadland Pines:D
 
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