Signature Dogs sign

[CarveOne]

Another project completed today.

A local hot dog shop owner asked me to make a sign for inside his business recently. I took a cell phone photo of his menu sign and imported it into Aspire to have it create the vector outlines for the text and hot dog. It needed no significant tweaking of nodes or deletion of any nodes. I created the wicker weave background for a picnic basket effect.

A 1/16" tip diameter tapered ball nose cutter at 10% step over and 150 ipm was used for the whole 3D weave area. The text and hot dog are separate models using merge. Java gel stain painted into the weave and wiped off with paper towel and paint thinner leaves the recesses dark brown. It is hand painted with Java stail around the slopes of the text. The text is hand painted red on the top surface. The bun is too light a shade of tan but it was all I could find locally. Flat brown spray was carefully passed by the bun to partially darken the bun. I'm no professional sign artiste but it works ok for me. It will be delivered tomorrow.

CarveOne

[galerdude]

Wow!

[Mobius]

That turned out great!

[BernieNUFC]

Thats really something, what is java gel stain?

[zeeway]

Excellent. Please make mine with mustard and relish.

Angie

[CarveOne]

Java is a dark roast coffee brown color gel stain made by General Finishes. I get it at Woodcraft or Klingspor Woodworking shop stores in Raleigh, NC. It is oil based, so it can be cleaned off with a folded paper towel with a small amount of paint thinner in it - if it has been applied over three or four base coats of polyurethane that is fully cured. The weave has it in all of the lowest areas and none left on top of the weave. There is some technique to using it, but I use it a lot. I apply one sealer coat of polyurethane sprayed over the gel stain after the gel stain has dried.

Angie - The sign's hot dog has mustard, relish, and onions painted on it. It's too late to change your order my friend ...

CarveOne

[CarveOne]

The sign was delivered this afternoon.

The owner had seen the Aspire simulation, but he was surprised with the completed version. Very happy with the sign. My wife and I ate an early dinner free of charge after all.

CarveOne

[mtylerfl]

That sign is really nice! No wonder you got to eat for free (I think you should eat there for free for at least a year - veggie dogs, of course though).

[CarveOne]

Veggie Dogs? My pot belly says it can't digest those ...

He also saw the latest salad bowl guitar and had the same kind of reaction to it. He can't believe someone from around his little town can make stuff like these. His hot dog shop is a small hole-in-the-wall business that started last year and is doing fairly well so far. I decided to see what I could do to help improve the decor a little. I only charged him the out of pocket cost of the materials (this time).

CarveOne

[mtylerfl]

You could make some v-carve Hot Dog Key Rings, display near the register and sell them to his customers as "impulse items". Free "hot dog publicity" for him and a little dough for you!

[martin54]

Looks good but then all your work I have seen on the forum does

I bet the owner was very happy with the sign, especially the price

I only charged him the out of pocket cost of the materials (this time).


I know this isn't a business for you but think about some of your other expenses as well as the material costs on this job, bits wear & have to be replaced, software upgrades, machine maintenance etc etc, even if you charged just a little to help with these things the customer would still have got a complete bargain.

I run a business, only part time but still a business so maybe it's a bit different, I have found over the years that if you do a job cheaply for a customer then they expect every other job you do for them to be cheap as well, plus they tell all their mates who also want everything done really cheaply as well

Anyway as I said at the start, great work as usual

[CarveOne]

You are entirely correct Martin.

There is still a lot of uncharged for expenses and they do expect to get the same treatment later. This is a retirement hobby for me, and I like to see my friends happy - not the tax department accountants. It does massage the ego quite a bit to be able to do this kind of stuff and show it off. Most of my early cnc learning projects have been given away. ~75% of my projects were given to family and friends as gifts. Leaving a memory as it were. At 71 yo, I don't want to run a business or have too many expectations put on me when I don't have an interest in working for a while. I get a big kick in attending McGrews Aspire Camp each year and it grows harder each time to make one more trip.

CarveOne