A BASORO (or a really cool sign)

A really elegant sign–goal accomplished! I like to see operations without the crumb tray–need to see more of those sorts of nonstandard operations.

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Beautiful as al your work is.
Love how the grain came out.
Thanks for sharing!

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Good point. I should probably make a super quick tutorial on how to do that.

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Oh, I couldn’t do that anyway, as I wanted the trees lower down than the current field would accept, so between all the words and bottom engrave I slid the whole piece up an inch so that I could get lower down. In the final version which allows full bed height, I could have.

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Yes! Please do!

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Looks great! I see a lot of signs in my future. I’m sure I’ll make a few on my Glowforge laser just because I can but, for a sign like this, after the novelty of having a laser wears off (if it ever does), I’d probably use my CNC router. There will be plenty of other signs that will lend themselves more the the strengths of a laser.

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It produces a very different look. So you get the char of course along with square sides and bottoms. You can also pocket in for way tinier detail. But if you want smooth transition pockets or no char then milling is the way to go.

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Yeah, whether to choose CNC or laser will depend on the desired look and the level of detail. For my personal design style, I think I’d like this type of sign cut on a CNC router. Everyone’s tastes differ.

One of my first projects will be to redo the sign I cut on my router for my wife’s office door 6 years ago. It’s OK but I was limited in the level of detail I could pull off with the router. I’ll get something a lot more refined with the laser.

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This sign really is getting me thinking. Have the detailed photos and description of the process is so good. Thanks for taking the time.

It made me make a few more test squares with different power settings and adjusting the speed.

Many of my engraves I go for depth and burn away and not worry about the char and go for max speed. What is interesting that I learned last night is that you can get depth without much char with lighter power and higher resolution and slowing speed down. Balancing all these out will take a few more trials. But there are way more variables to explore and see results.

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Also try following up a deep engrave with a lower power/faster speed which can burn off the charts leaving a lighter wood layer exposed.

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And the most important photo of the project, successful delivery to a happy client! I actually got stopped as I walked over to that building by people asking who had made my amazing sign; pretty cool to say “oh I made it last night at home for a buddy”

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The smile says it all! If you get a photo after he is done with whatever painting he does, I’d love to see it.

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Once he has it hung off the signpost he is going to send me a photo, and I will post!

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The text really looks good over the whole length of the curve. I am rarely satisfied with how Inkscape puts text to path when I am doing it. It often takes some tweaking. I know it can do it well, but I haven’t gotten the routine down.

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Has anyone tried CNCing a project and then lasering some of the design to increase/add detail to the engraved area(s)? For example in the above, if you CNCed the trees deeper (to appear more in the background) and then lasered… Just thinking at the keyboard…:thinking:

…soooooo many ideas popping up - I still need to start to assemble my X-carve one of these weekends…)

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Illustrator CC has extensive text on a curve controls

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Ok. Your example forced me to look a little more closely at the Inkscape controls. Yes, there are all kinds of tweaks to apply. Just don’t see them as tools and they aren’t always visible so I’ve dug for them and it does help. Thanks so much.

Your wish was my command:

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So finally got an “action” (well it’s a stationary sign, but you get the idea) shot of the GF’ed sign at his cabin. I think he went a little thick on the urethane, but looks super nice.

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ool but very nice. :heart:

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