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I have a bowling alley sign to do on the side of their building, part of my idea for the sign is to have a bowling ball painted on the wall with a 3d pin suspended out from the wall. My problem is I have never made anything like that so was wondering if anyone out there could give me some advice on how to go about doing it. The pin would be about 4ft high and if possible want to try and make it look as though it isn't attached to the wall. Any ideas or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanking you all in advance
------------------ Neil White Sign Magic Melton, VIC Australia whitey@primus.com.au
Posts: 277 | From: australia | Registered: Dec 1999
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Don't paint it on the wall..........carve a 1/2 bowling ball out of precision Board and use studs to mount it to the wall. Make sure you show the holes. Carve your pin out of PB too, shave a 45 degree angle near the base and us another stud to attatch the 45 deg flush to the wall. That'll tip the pin out away from the wall. ????????? :^)
------------------ St.Marie Graphics & Makin' Tracks Sound Studio Kalispell, Montana Mkntraks@digisys.net Carving America into a better shape! PEACE, through superior chisel-power!
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A 4' high pin would probably end up being a good 14" to 18" around at the thickest point - pretty ambitious project to try to make in full 3D. Maybe a half pin in bas-relief would suffice. Even something as thin as 3-6 inches should pull off the effect. As for the ball, Gemini Inc. (1-800-LETTERS) makes 1/2 spheres in black formed acrylic from 6" up to 24" diam that can be aluminum stud mounted. Too bad they don't make pins too because weight could end up being a problem. HDU can be pretty dang heavy.
The lightest weights of HDU foam (like 6lb density) are weird to work with...sooo soft till you get if coated with something. There's always the builders variety of solid expanded foam too, the pink stuff, like used for insulation. Way cheaper for experimenting with.
Dan Sawatski would build a wire and screen frame and spray with dryvit cement or some kind of fiberglass.
A face company that thermoforms acrylic pan faces could probably pull a half pin if you made a mold for them. I don't think too many of them frequent this particular board, but a look through the suppliers section of the trade mags should produce some wholeasalers willing to take it on. The mold would be hell to build but just think, if you had a mold, YOU could be the molded bowling pin KING of the world. The sole source worldwide! Good luck.
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I agree with JOE! The rigid pink insulation board is GREAT to use for cheap imitation HDU... it's LIGHT too. I heartily recommend it... Of course, these wonderful sculptured parts will be FAR from the reach of mischevious vandals, correct? LE
------------------ LazyEdna in RL known as Sara Straw from southern Utah 5 National Parks within 3 hours drive Red Rock Heaven
Posts: 776 | From: Aurora, Utah, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Depending on the budget you have for this project you could approach it in a number of different ways.
One -build it in signfoam like others have suggested.
Two -build it from lightweight foam and coat it with something like acrylic stucco. It would be light but not especially smooth. This could be designed into the sign.
Three -build a half positive from whatever is handy... ie. foam, plaster of paris, etc. and then fabricate a mold around this positive. Use the half-mold to fabricate two fiberglass pieces and then join them together. This would be a lightweight solution and very durable. If you don't like using fiberglass - any fiberglass or boat shop should be able to do the mold and subsequent fiberglass work for you.
If you want to make a real big version use concrete over w welded steel frame like we do. How about the world's larges bowling ball and pins?
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