| | |
Stewey,
I bet that's close to the same material. It's good to keep in mind, if a material is made for exterior use, it may be laced with oil or phenolic resins. Those may be hard to coat out with water based paints such as latexes. You will need to prime with a shellac based primer like Kils. I usually scrub the surface with a little soapy water and stiff brush.
Perhaps you will have some siding materials available. They come in 1/2" thickness.
Good Luck,
Joe Crumley
www.normansignco.com
Thanks, Joe.
After I read your reply, I looked Extira up on the 'net, and then looked Weathertex up- and our weathertex is made without glues- it uses a super heat and pressure to fuse the hardwood fibres. I thought that was interesting.
The stuff is hard and heavy, but it lasts well in the weather, and it takes all paints. Still only 3/8" sheet thickness.
Thanks again.
Looks like a simular product.
Extira is very heavy but I can't say it's all that hard. I can take a chisel to a corner and get it to flake. The manufacture said it could be painted with all paints. NOT. Since it's waterproof, water based paints do not get a good grip.Prime as per my previous suggestion.
In my shop, I have a large wood burning stove. Extira scraps are excellent for heat. I bet your product is also since it's fused, and hard.
I don't remember what type of CNC your using.
Joe
Our router was an Esab Signmate 1000 I think, born in 1990. It had x & y servos & a pneumatic Z axis with screws to set the depth it could go to.
There's a 3 hp Perske spindle, and a 2 metre wide by 16 long ft bed. I haven't got the back end of the bed set up though- it's just set up for 11 ft in length at the moment.
IN 2000 it was retrofitted with the latest Texcel (aussie router) drives, and newer servos & controller etc, and a motorised Z axis, and then the bloke I got it from bought it in 2001. He bought Enroute 3 for it, and later upgraded to pro, but never used the 3D side of it. His buisness changed direction & he bought a new router with auto tool changes & whizz-bang features in 2008, and we bought the 'old' one from him.
That was south of Sydney. It was a 1300 km trip to freight it in pieces up to us, and then the giant learning curve, reassembling it, & getting it going & learning the software, feed speeds, tool details, breaking cutters etc. We bought it in May, got it delivered up in June & assembled it in July '08.
I've burned out one driver & two servos on the Z axis doing lithophanes. We recently got a ballnut & leadscrew from China to try & solve that problem.
Epineh here on these forums helped me diagnose & replace the burned out components on the crook drive/amplifier. That was terrific.
After trying a stack of possible excuses, inconclusively, I put the problem down to the delrin nut on the acme screw of the Z axis. I think that a heap of negligible movement in the one spot eventually caused heating & binding of the nut on the screw and that put the extra load on the servo. Getting a more powerful servo did not fix the problem- burned that out too. Trying to run it in the air above the job with no tool load also did not help, so the problem was not coming from the cutter or the material. I had a big thread here in the servos category of these forums about it overheating.
I haven't yet attached the ballnut lead screw- it only arrived last Thursday.
For ordinary 2D & 2.5D work, the router was fine, and for 3D stuff with say a 2" height range it was fine, but it was just the small stuff that used to cause the binding & excessive loads.
So, it was a bigger learning curve than I'd have ever anticipated....not that I'm complaining...and these forums have been or tremendous benefit with helping to figure out answers!
It's still a Tekcel controller on an Esab bed. I may retrofit it to something better sometime, since Tekcel aren't so good with info on fixing my problems, now that the hardware & circuitry is 10 years old. When it's earned me what it cost, we might upgrade the electronics, and maybe add in Mach3 or something, but at the moment I like the driver software which is proprietory to the machine.
I also don't mind Enroute, now that I have got the hang of it. The LPT dongle is a pain having to remove it to a different PC if I want to work on it at home, but such is life, I guess. I'm not about to buy Aspire, as I don't have any problems with what we have, except for a lack of funds at the moment!
Sewey,
You have definantely been put through the baptism of router hell.
I'm not much of a tech fellow so I have little to add except, my router is running on Mach 3 and it's a dream once it gets installed and set up. Cheap too.
My latest router is a 5'X10' EZ. I've had it for three years. It doesn't have a TC or Vac hold down which would be nice to have. I sold off a wobbbly Shopbot and wouldn't recommend that.
My software is ArtCam but would save 6K by adding Aspire. My assisstant has one and it's faster and cleaner than ArtCam.
Our nextdoor neighbors bought an old Thermwood and changed out the controll box and also incorporated Mach 3. Seems to be working well. All in all I don't do much 3D work. It's too slow and clunky. I often find other ways to get my work done. 3D for me has real drawbacks for standard operating. It's been over sold in the sign industry. It main be essential for other applications like jewelry. Don't know.
Good luck with the exterior fiber materials.
Joe
Thanks, Joe.
I forgot to mention ours came with a vac. bed, but it had been removed to allow more room under the gantry, and we don't have 3-phase power on tap here. We have a 20 kva diesel gen-set, and it wasn't worth cranking that up all the time. I ended up buying a small rotary phase converter so we can run the spindle from single phase power- much more peaceful! I have a manually adjustable frequency/speed controller on the wall beside the router.
I just use timber screws and chocks and whatever else seems necessary to hold the substrate onto the bed for routing. Vacuum would be nice, but we have a 10 hp vac. motor to have to power, and currently don't have the needs for it, considering the cost & effort & power drain.
With the 3D I know what you mean. However, I've had a few signwriters sub their 3D needs in hdu out to me to cut/rout, and it's a small avenue that could be developed- just not at high speed! I've enjoyed fiddling with lithophanes, too, and a little bit of unique small trophy making.
I do like your pseudo-3d alternate methods.
Stewey,
This is a ballancing act isn't it.
Like you, I'd would like a vacuum but can't justify the expense, noise, and trouble. A TC is almost justifiable but a retro fit isn't in the cards. I'm a little long in the tooth to venture out on a new CNC. I'll be 70 this Saturday and don't know how much longer I'll be pushing this pony as hard as I've been. I'm not a high volume guy but spend considerable time on concepts and detail and production.
I can't, for the life of me, how anyone can make money with, one off, `3D. On occasion it comes in handy. For example the "R" I've posted, with the rib detail, is done in 3D. That will go fast since I'm using a 1/2' bit with 90 percent step over which leaves the fat ribs.
Here's what we use for hold downs. I made them from a discarded table.
Hi Joe - I have been enjoying reading your posts. I'm in Melbourne Australia and having a crack at getting into some signage.
My first job is a bit of a mix, but it includes a large 3D crown wheel from a gear box as a logo. I have attached an image of a crown wheel.
Integrated (pocketed) into this logo will be some letters and text. The text will be more basic and graphic, in contrast to a large realistic looking mechanical part behind in the background.
I am interested in using a metal coating (iron b). But do I also need to use a patina? I don't want the crown wheel to be overly aged or weathered - just a hint of looking like machined steel.
Thanks in advance.
Malcolm
Malcolm, what will you be making the gears out of?
Do you have a rotary axis on your router?
There is a cast-iron metal-look paint you can get here, made by Langridge.
You'll have to look them up on the 'net, and go to an art shop in Melbourne & order it via them.
I used a batch of it-and ran out a couple of years ago. The second lot I got through an art store locally took about 2 weeks to arrive, but cost me about half as much as if I'd gone directly to Langridge.
Langridge also make a rust & a copper/bronze coating. The rust one looks nice on its own, but looks better if aged with the coppersulphate oxidising agent. Thebronze one need the oxidising or it looks pretty crummy.
I don't know if any of the well-known north american paints are available here though-Modern Masters etc.
Thanks Steve. I like your work.
"What will you be making the gears out of?"
I've been following a couple of creative signmakers in Canada. One uses 30lb HDU and the other uses polystyrene with StyroSpray to provide a hard shell. The highest density HDU in Oz seems to be multipanel which is only 210kg/ton. However, the equivalent of 30lb is 450kg/ton. And Multipanel is 30mm max thickness I think. So for my first commercial job I'm going for polystyrene and sytrospray, with a thick primer over that, and still selecting topcoats.
Do you have a rotary axis on your router?
I wish. I only have a small 600x900x120 router. It's good, but it can miss the occasional step if pushed too hard (which is why I'm trying polystyrene).
I'll look into Langridge - thanks. I did find this supplier of SN:
AMC Supplies
I also found this one.
Thanks again. I'll keep you posted...
Malcolm, we use a reasonable bit of multipanel. Yes, it isn't the weight of the 30lb stuff, but it is an aussie product, and is fairly readily available up here in sunny/muddy Qld.
It's dear though. The alternative is Duna which is much much dearer, and harder to get.
Multipanel routs easily though.
With ploystyrene, you might have a big dabdruff & static issue!
M.
I'm a little hesitant to suggest SN for this job. My reasoning is this: Their "Iron" is a nice dark gray when first applied. Nothing fancy just a medium flat gray. Over time it tends to turn a dark brown. This may be exactly what your looking for but not sure what look will work for you.
Thanks for checking with me.
Joe Crumley
Posting Permissions
| | |
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
