New Corian Directory

[Keith Outten]

This is the first of three identical directories I have been working on lately for McMurran Hall at Christopher Newport University. I hung this one today, the other two should be finished in the next couple of days.

These are reasonably simple to make, they are basic flat work. Anyone with rudimentary CNC skills should be able to bang these out and make a few bucks. They are 46 inches tall and 28 inches wide made from 1/2 inch thick Tumbleweed Corian. The inserts are 1/4 inch thick Cameo White, the blanks were machined from Tumbleweed, I had to reduce the thickness of a piece of Tumbleweed to 1/4 inch to make the blanks.

The text was cut with a 60 degree vbit and I machined two keyholes on the back side for hanging, the rest of the machining was done with a 1/4 inch spiral bit. I machined the front side first so I could cut out the windows....then round over the window edges with a small hand held router before I flipped it over and cut the ledge for the inserts. You need the full depth of the material for the bearing to ride on to machine the quarter rounded edges.

The inserts are held in place with application tape, they are flush with the back of the sign so the wall provides additional/primary support. The inserts can be used twice, changes can be engraved or carved on the backside of the inserts. Changing the inserts is as simple as removing the sign from the wall and installing a new insert.

The three sails logo at the top of the directory are 1/4 inch thick Tumbleweed inlays that stand proud of the surface about 3/16 inch.
All design and toolpathing work was done with Aspire.

If you do a bit of Google searching for building directories the prices you find might just turn your head around
.

[Joe Corris]

Nice looking directory, Keith...one question.

The contrasting typeface and border embellishments....how are they done?

I can only guess that the corian is covered in mask, carved through, and sprayed to color the grooving done by the cnc.

[Keith Outten]

Joe,

On the main body all of the details were routed with a 60 degree vbit.
The inserts were laser engraved but they could have been routed.

Paint fill on the whole project was done with a foam brush and oil paint. I dab plenty of paint in the grooves and letters, after the paint dries I scrape the excess off of the surface with a razor blade on a long handle which removes almost all of the paint. I then run my randon orbital sander over the surface of the sign. This technique is very fast and easy, no masking is required. I have a couple more pictures that may help, I will post them this evening.
.

[Nicholas Bukky]

Keith did you stop using rattle cans for painting??

Nice sign!!


Nick

[Mick A Martin]

Nice looking directories Keith

[Keith Outten]

Nicholas,

I still use rattle cans, it depends on whether I would have to mask with tape to protect surfaces that are close to the area I need to paint. As long as my ROS will clean up the surface I spray paint, if there are details that I need to protect then I use a foam brush.
.

[Belinda Barfield]

Very nice Keith! That looks so much better than a piece of plastic with some lettering.

One question, on the engraved parts did you engrave more than one pass? I have had a problem with engraving, spraying, and then sanding in that in order to remove all the excess paint sometimes the sanding process actually removes some the engraved area. I'm assuming I'm not engraving deep enough.

[Keith Outten]

Belinda,

I have a 60 watt laser engraver, the speed and power settings are set so I get a depth of 1/32" deep in a single pass. At this depth you don't have to worry about the sander removing the paint. In fact you could repaint and sand several times over the years when the paint fades.

There are 60 inserts total for the three directories. I made them from small scrap pieces left over from other projects. Had I used full sheets for this job I would have vcarved the text because it would have been much faster to cut them on the CNC router.
.

[Mick A Martin]

Your right about the price, for a plastic directories you can pay anywhere between $160 - $500 depending on how many window inserts.

[Keith Outten]

Four more pictures that may shed some light on how simple this is to do.

First picture: Font side machined and removed from the router. Then the windows were rounded over.

Second picture: The back side after putting the directory back on the router to machine the dog bone dado's.

Third Picture: Directory painted with a foam brush and left to dry overnight. Early the next morning the paint won't be completely dry, this is the best time to scrape off the excess with a sharp razor blade. This one took about 5 minutes to scrape off all the excess paint. Small door signs take about 45 seconds.

Fourth Picture: A close-up of the scraping process and what it looks like when the majority of the paint is removed. Scraping the excess paint saves a lot of sanding disks and time. After scraping I used 3M Trizac disks on my ROS to sand the top surface.
.

[Keith Outten]

Mick,

I have seen acrylic directories that were over three thousand dollars. When you need new sliders they charge in the neighborhood of 50 bucks per slider.

[Bob Savage]

Awesome thread, thanks for the new pictures Keith.

[Nicholas Bukky]

Keith you ever see the price of acrylic? I bet those make for cool looking directories!

This is a great thread thanks!

Nick

[Keith Outten]

Nicholas,

When I first purchased my laser engraver I bought acrylic sheets all the time. Then I found out that I buying full sheets and cutting them up into small pieces that would fit in my laser was less attractive than buying acrylic drops from a local frame shop. I recently bought another small truck load of clear acrylic drops for ten bucks.

I rarely purchase acrylic sheets anymore unless I need a specific color, gold or silver mirror.
A couple months ago I bought a 1/4" thick sheet of cast orange acrylic that was about $140.00 and I have about two thirds of it left over after I finished the job for a customer. I have no idea how long it will take before I use up the rest of the orange sheet, no big deal I guess since it is paid for
.

[Keith Outten]

There isn't any reason why this directory couldn't be use as an exterior sign, life expectancy would be about 50 years according to Dupont. It would be very easy to back light these so the inserts would light up or just glow depending on the customers needs.

Thinking outside the box for a brief minute.......you could machine a lithophane in the directory rather than the flourish if you planned to back light the directory or fabricate the lithophane and insert it in a window.

the problem with lithophanes is that they are time consuming to machine and there are very few customers willing to pay the price. If you incorporate a lithophane into the sign you get something very special that might open up a whole new business area for your shop.
Just doing a little brainstorming...........
.