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I'm working on my first carved sign. I've finally got all the letters carved, I kept my tools sharp and the edges of the letters turned out pretty smooth but now I've put my first coat of primer on the sign and I have to somehow sand it smooth again!? What's the trick? The strokes of the letters are about 3/8" and about 3/16" deep to the bottom of the V. I'm having a hard time getting my fingers and the sandpaper down into the groove and around bends without sanding through the primer and affecting the carving.
Any tips or tricks? I'm baffled.
Thanks for any help!
-------------------- Terry Whynott Walkerton, Ontario
I know this is going to sound like a wise guy answer but...
The secret is to sand lightly and carefully. Too easy, huh? Well, let's backtrack just a wee bit...
After carving your letters, you need to put on at least 3 coats of high build primer. Let them dry completely between coats. If you put the primer on too fast or thick, the primer underneath will still be wet and not dry well in the corners. This is definately a place where a lighter coat works a lot better. Use a small brush to remove excess primer from the corner of the letters.
When the primer is dry, use some 400 wet/dry sand paper. wet sand very carefully. Keep your paper fresh and wet.
After sanding, it may be necessary for you to reprime and resand. If you try to be too meticulous in sanding, it will drive you nuts.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at the shop.
[ October 11, 2001: Message edited by: Bruce Bowers ]
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6464 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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Terry, Here's my tricks. One, is put a coat of the filler on in one direction, then after it dries put another coat on in a 90 degree direction. This builds the primer much heavier. My third pass (before sanding is applied with a 4 inch drywall knife. This fills the grooves and leaves a fairly simple sand job. The fill is probably about 6 mils and won't sand through if you are careful. I use my bare fingers to do the final fill in the carved areas. Works great. I don't think their is any shortcuts, but it will save the backtracks and give you a great finish surface. You will love the trowel deal. It will save a lot of sanding. Bronzeo
-------------------- "Don't change horses in midstream, unless you spot one with longer legs" bronzeo oti Jack Davis 1410 Main St Joplin, MO 64801 www.imagemakerart.com jack@imagemakerart.com Posts: 1549 | From: Joplin, MO | Registered: Mar 2000
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We experiment a lot trying to find the most efficient method. Lately, on HDU, we've been having good results with a single coat of primer, light finger sand to get off any chunkies, followed by two full, flowing coats of gloss enamel with hardener in it (on two consecutive days). By using the hardener there is no chance of any thick areas remaining soft, so we can put on a heavier coats, really lay them on. We're getting glassy finish by the second coat which is good to go as is, or as a great base for gold size.
A note, we also pre-finish our backgrounds and apply a mask before carving - so we're carving THROUGH the mask (which is usually cut on plotter). That way we don't have to be so careful applying the primer and colors inside the carved areas, and peeling the mask off at the end leaves all edges clean. The only caution is not to get overly liberal with the hardener. You might think if a little is good then more is better, but if the paint gets too hard it can get brittle, wanting to make jaggie, sawtooth edges around the edges when you remove the mask.
Here is a curve ball: we don't use primer on HDU at all!
Strange? Not really. Gary Anderson, one of the best known names in the industry doesn't use high build primer on his HDU signs either. ( I talked to him 1 to 1 at a Letterhead Meet in Indiana this year about this very subject.
My process: 1. sand the hdu and blow all the dust of with an air gun.
2. cut vinyl stencil, place on HDU
3. cut around letters with a common snap blade plastic knife
4. remove the vinyl pattern as you cut so you know where you have and have not been cutting should you be distracted.
5. carve around the letters, and if you boo boo then use wood filler like DAP Wood Filler or Durham Rock Hard putty to fix the boo boo or surface holes.
sand, blow the dust off and then hose it with water and let all the particles run off. let it dry, or blow it dry with the air gun.
6. paint the entire sign with 100% acrylic latex enamel house paints, either high gloss or flat, doesn't matter and only depends if you want a gloss finish or a flat or semi gloss.
If you want a gloss finish and are using 100% acrylic latex enamels, then coat it several times with at least 3 coats.
7. Now you can letter that surface with either HIGH PERFORMANCE 8 year 2 mill vinyl or you can paint the finihed letters with 1 Shot, House of Colors, Chromatic or even Latex 100% gloss enamel and DECKA water base sign paints.
8. The last step is optional: Clear coat with PLEUCID, and only if you never need to go back and paint anything on the sign ever again...because once that stuff goes on, nothing else ever will.
9. they have new clear coats advertised and I seen them at letterhead meets that make a deep glossy finish on signs, almost like that doming stuff for stickers. Its neat suff.
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