WELCOME!


It is hard to believe that it was only seven years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Through extensive research I quickly found out that with the relative simplicity of EnRoute, CNC routers were capable of just about anything imaginable. This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as we continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful software... -dan

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Building Bucky


As I mentioned in my last post building a sign with modern software like EnRoute and using a MultiCam makes the task of building this sign a whole lot easier and faster.

As always we started with vectors of the various components of the sign.


I first created flat reliefs of the two boards that go through the sign.




Then I added bitmaps to each board (from my bitmap collection)






 Then it was on to the center oval. I first created a tall (2") flat relief... then  I dropped the center section and added a woodgrain bitmap o this portion.





I forgot to grab some screen shots but the scroll was built up in layers with the center section being 2" tall. Bucky's body was also added at 2" tall.


All these bits were merged together or combined to form one relief. This created the first layer of the sign to be routed from a 2" thick piece of 30 lb Precision Board.


The next layer of the sign to be created was also 2" thick but was shaped nicely/ The scroll top was first created as a flat relief and then modified using the dome tool and the circle vector. The beaver's body was also made into a relief using the dome tool.



The lettering outline and lettering were the next modifications  to the scroll relief.


The bumper boat lettering was the last step on this layer.



The last layer was a 1.5" thick flat piece with cutouts for the square steel tubing that will be laminated inside.


And with that the pieces were ready to be sent to the router.

-dan