posted
Of course I know it's not. But I'd like to get some feedback from across the country as to how folks are selling sandblasted wood, foam, etc. vs. routered products.
With the proliferation of routers nowadays, I'm trying to get a feel of how blasting stacks up in your neighborhood and what the future may hold.
posted
Of course being over this side of the pond, I don't know how the market is in the US.
But I have been sandblasting a few years, and have my own industrial equipment, and large diesel compressor.
Have just invested in CNC router, but not to stop blasting, I want to do other stuff in acrylic, and aluminium, dibond etc. Plus the fun of making add-ons to blasted signs more efficiently.
I really like the roughness in backgrounds that I create with blasting, using different home made tools and my own version of a grain frame. I think the routed dimensional signs where you can programme in backgrounds to look "handcarved" look to sterile and perfect...now whether thats something just we notice, is another question. The customer maybe is non the wiser.
I will continue to do both anyhow, and combine the two in different ways. Sandblasting even with pro equipment is alot cheaper to get into than routing!
posted
I Still Blast as you cant accomplish the LOOK with a router but I usally will rout some material away and cut the shape then Blast as I dont have to be there all day blasting and I can get the raised grain in about 5 mins
posted
I'm one of those dinosaurs that still blasts wood, although I tend to use HDU for the bigger stuff.The chisels come out at some point on virtually every sign, but I don't have a router, & not likely ever will - I'd have another payment, & I'd have to produce more, so there goes a little more of life's freedom. Besides, I tried to get my head around Profile Lab, & I guess I've just gotten stupider, because I ain't gettin' it. TR
-------------------- Rodger MacMunn T.R. MacMunn & Sons C.P.207, Sharbot Lake, ON 613-279-1230 trmac@frontenac.net Posts: 472 | From: Sharbot Lake, Ontario | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Greg, I have to reply, because in a way, the sandblasted sign IS dieing! Almost all of the nice entry signs done here in Naples, are designed by architects.
What they are designing is a structure that is relevent to the building or common area & usually a 3-D letter attached to the entry element, for lack of better terminology. So now, all we, as sign makers are getting, is the job to fabricate & install the letters & graphic elements.
No design imput, nothing more than reproducing the image that they have created.
I get far fewer sandblasted signs than I did 5-10 years ago.
You Asked!
My advice, get a 3-D router, or at least a Computer driven router to cut letters & graphics!
-------------------- Rob Thomas 3410 Ketcham Ct Beautiful Springs FL 34134 Posts: 965 | From: Bonita Springs, Florida USA | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Sandblasted signs seem to cycle about every 8 or ten years...and each time the prices go up...not sure wahts behind this cycle but I've seen it in action...we're off right now after a good 5 year run of blasting...I look for it to get hot and heavy again in a few years. Hope I will still be able to get redwood when it cranks up again!
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
We do quite a bit of sandblasted Granite. Although there are high end CNC machines used in the counter top fabrication industry, I don’t see that equipment affecting us much in the foreseeable future. Those machines are orders of magnitude more expensive than the routers used in the sign industry.
I do see more of what Robert mentioned here. More and more signs are done with routed letters on a background element whereas a few years ago, they would have been sandblasted.
Although I have personally cut out tens of thousands of letters and shapes on a band saw the last three decades plus, I am getting lazy in my old age and subbing much of my cutting to a local router equipped shop. When I get to the point I’m spending more on routing than the payments on the machine would be, I’ll seriously look into a router.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Thanks a lot for the replys folks. It's pretty much the same way here. Seems to be a lot more router-cut-slammed-on-background type of signage going on.
In this area it seems that sandblasted signs are perceived as a bit more higher-end hand crafted type of piece.
posted
We have been talking people out of sandblasted signs.
The problem for a business is that if any information changes on the sign, it has to be trashed.
We are trying to upscale our clients to the stucco monument signs, with attached demensional letters or a V carved frontal piece, which can be changed out with little expense to repair the existing monument.
Those with CNC routers can build these monuments from scratch, and letter them. The acrylic stucco is the hard part... to find a supplier who will sell the materials... There is a supplier 1 mile away from me that WILL NOT SELL Drivit to me, so I have to go 90 miles South to a little Amish community where a dry wall supplier (old fashion Mennonite guy) who has no qualms with selling to us. (I'm surprised he has a phone)
The newer blasted signs I see in these parts do not look like a "redwood" grain blast...just a pebble finished blast...so they look like stucco anyway.
[ February 19, 2004, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]
posted
I am doing the same thing that Dave is doing. I am leading my clients more toward routed signs.
We have a Sabre 408 and can create some really unique backgrounds. I have noticed an increase in orders from other sign shops for prismatically cut letters and complete routing of signs of their own design.
At one time I sandblasted only Clear Heartwood Vertical Grained Redwood. I still have about 150 redwood boards in 3" x 8" x 10’ just sitting in the shop drying. (No, I do not want to sell them).
Now, I use HDU, thus, I have been able to down size the size of my compressor and blast pot.
I would not venture to say that sand blasting is dead, but it has slowed somewhat.
Barry
-------------------- Barry Jenicek Signs by Unique St. Louis, MO Posts: 34 | From: St. Louis, MO | Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
We Love sand-balsted signs here, customers to sign people, we all want redwood but it is now virtually impossible to get locally. It seems assanine to try to have it shipped from clear across the country, but my main supplier quit sellin' clear-heart a coupl'a years ago and tells me that it's just virtually gettin' extinct for commercial use. We now have a good source for cypress, and I know cedar works well too but have'nt used it as yet.
...I've done only one sand-blasted sign with HDU . . .it's ok . . .it still looks great even after 5-6 years, it's fun an' easy to carve . . . but . . . but . . . there's just somethin' about wood . . . REAL wood grain, the texture and even the smell . . . . .........
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
It never took off here, even with all the multi-million dollar homes going up. There are shops here that can do the work, and although there are businesses here that want the higher end image they don't want to pay for it.
Sandblasted signs here are a rarity - most signage is either a plex face in a light box, a banner attached to an exterior wall, or small metal frame with a piece of plywood (not even MDO) stuck in it.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Still blasting away here. Not too much wood right now. It took awhile but people are buying the HDU now. Been using it for about 7 years. When I started there was only one sandblasted sign in the whole county I think. Now we sell them in the surrounding 5 counties and some as far away as N. Carolina. I haven't touched my redwood in a long time except for a small sign last month and a couple last year. People love the sandblasted look here I guess because it's still not so common.
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7403 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
I have done a couple of sandblasted HDU signs & I just don't like the artificial look & feel. I do like HDU for carving & have been using a local cabinet shop that has a 3-D router. In all, sandblasted signs are not "in" right now.
I think carved, either hand or CNC routed in mahogany w/gold leaf would sell here. I am doing a sample as we speak.
I love real wood, esp. mahogany and may be pushing that more.
-------------------- Rob Thomas 3410 Ketcham Ct Beautiful Springs FL 34134 Posts: 965 | From: Bonita Springs, Florida USA | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
here in portland oregon its still really popular from downtown to the outer parts. we just get cedar sign blanks from out sign supply shop, mask them up send them to a sandblaster then get them back and paint them
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