Sonbuilt Logo - Part 2

After looking at the file we created in our last instalment, we decided that keeping the deep edge just over the clouds even with the top edge of the board used up a lot of valuable depth real estate. We will need to create the waterfall. So, we opted to create the clouds as a separate relief, then dish it in using an oval vector as we had done with then sunburst background.

We placed this relief over our original (at the correct height) and merged then together using EnRoute’s 'merge highest' command.

We were now ready to tool path and send to the router.

Since we didn't want to deal with glue seams through the sunburst rays, we routed it from 3" Precision Board HDU.

Because of the depth, we opted to use three passes for the rough cut - probably overkill but we didn't break the bit either! For the finish pass we used a tapered 1/8" ballnose bit. Next we’ll start in on the other pieces of this jigsaw puzzle and it should start looking more like the logo we want to emulate.

Rowdy Raven - Gold Leaf

In this video, Dan demonstrates how to apply gold leaf. Gold leaf can be intimidating if you have never done it before, but as you will see, the process is surprisingly straightforward.

Sonbuilt Logo - Part 1

Once upon a time, Sonbuilt Custom Homes, had an existing logo they wanted incorporated into a lectern to be used at trade shows and as a display piece in their office. We designed a 3D shadow box with LED back lighting and a real waterfall. The box measured 32" x 32" x 16" deep. Our client built a watertight aluminum enclosure and we inserted the logo.

The client had an existing vector file; however ,opening it up we found a jumble of lines. It looked great in print but was not very useful for our purposes. After separating the many elements we decided the sunburst was usable, but that needed to be heavily modified before we could create a routing file.

Once separated, the vector sunburst looked like this. However, if we created a file using this vector the points of the star would be far too fragile to be practical.

So, using Enroute’s offset tool with radius corners, we offset to the outside, deleted the original, and offset to the inside. After this, we cut the shape of the clouds into the sunburst.

Then, using the shape of the piece we wanted to route, we created the basic relief. This relief was modified using an oval.

Once we modified the original relief using the oval shape it had a nice dished surface..

After this, we used the starburst vector to modify the relief once more; creating the background for the logo.

We also made one small modification to the file — we created an eight sided post in the middle of the starburst. The eight sides would hold the LED lights and the post would support the top of the tree.

Finally, we created a vector that would be used for an offset cut (to cut out the piece). The file was now ready to tool path and send to the router.