# Show off your signs!



## SugarbeatCo

The standard 3 axis machines are excellent for sign makers. I would bet there arent many cnc owners that havent made at least one. So lets see em! I'll start with a display I made for a local farm /home show.









Make from 6/4 red oak, all hand painted and cleared with satin lacquer..


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## oldnovice

SugarbeatCo, nice sign … no, beautiful sign.
What software did you use?
Funny question on the LJ site as before it was always what tool/bit/saw etc. did you use and now it's software.

I have a CNC and I haven't made a sign!Well, to be honest, I made a speed limit sign, not carved.

I stuck a felt tip pen in my collet and drew the sign on foam core board. I made the sign for one of my neighbors as we have had a lot of speeders on our street. Turned out pretty descent but it sure eats up the ink fast.


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## klw

As a newbie looking at (and hoping) all kinds of CNC machines, I would be interested in hearing what everyone is using to make their 'stuff'!

Thanks.


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## wormil

That is a smart looking sign. Do they have the equivalent of clip-art/stock images for CNC or is the bass modeled from scratch?


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## SugarbeatCo

I used Aspire 4 for this sign.. Aspire includes about a metric ******************** ton of stock images and 3d files. There is also about 5 reputable sources for 3D files. This fish I believe was from Vectorart3d or something. The banner was from the stock files that came with aspire. Aspire also comes with about 30 hrs of video tutorials, a lot which teach you about how to take a picture or piece of clip art and model it to 2.5 or 3d..


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## oldnovice

*klw*

Materials I have cut:

woods; oak, maple, cherry, pine, poplar, plywoods of all kinds, MDO, MDF
plastics; acrylics (a lot of acrylics), polycarbonates, ABS
solid surface counter top; Corian, Sandstone, Paperstone ( a lot of Paperstone as I like it better than the mineral based materials)

Cutters I have used:

 standard router bits (none with bearings obviously) Eagle America, Freud, Amana, Bosch and others
 milling cutters from Onsrud, Niagara, Conical Cutters (my favorite is the Onsrud Super O)
 felt tip pens, not a cutter but good for graphics of all kinds

I am considering a drag knife for sheet goods like vinyl adhesive sign materials. Also an engraving bit for plastics and metals. Note that both of the tools above *DO NOT* use a rotating router or spindle as it only holds the drag knife or engraving bit.


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## dannelson

the last two i did on the old machine, first one is a two sided colorcore, the second is a layered acrilic


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## SugarbeatCo

Nice work Dan, I have been wanting to do some edge lit signs for awhile now, just havent found a good source for cast acrylics.. Do you know of any that ship at a reasonable rate?


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## oldnovice

I have been buying my plastic at TAP Plastics which is local but is not inexpensive by any means. 
U.S. Plastic is the only web source I have considered as I needed some UHMW material and TAP does not carry that material but the project fell through before I bought any.


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## dannelson

Sugar beat, try Laird plastics they have a location in the twin city's. Dan


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