An unfortunate example of how well an HDU sign (and post for that matter) takes a hit from a car.
I’m not sure why your pro sign maker would say that. The pro sign makers I’ve talked to over the years use latex all the time. Needs to be the good stuff though.
Here is a close up of that 12 year old sign.
Perfect shape as far as paint…no peeling at all.
The heating grate looks fantastic. Good job!
What FEA program did you use? Was it easy to pre & post process with? Thanks.
I’m old and learned FEA the old school method…MATH, moment arms, bolted connections, etc. (I think F360 does it, but I’m comfortable with old school methods) I’m not sure what you mean Pre and Post process…Designed in F360, and Post processed using the Carbide3D post for the Shapeoko. Hope this answered your questions.
Can you add a picture of the other side?
It’s just flat, I didn’t do anything fancy.
They look very effective, what a good idea. One question, how did you do the lettering on the sides?
Dang, Jon, the award winner’s parents are going to need some really strong magnets to display those on the refrigerator door! 
BTW, +1
Understood. I was referring to Finite Element Analysis (FEA) that is used across many industries for stress analysis. My background is automotive and I have used several of the large scale programs. I thought that you might be using a FEA program and was curious about which one. Sorry for my confusion.
You are a hidden hero
Third project, no issues so far. Agonized about feeds and speeds, cut depth and running into things as I didn’t think this should take 5 hours. Managed to get it down to 2 hours where I felt semi comfortable.
One question about sounds of bits going through Curly Maple. I noticed that when I started a clearing path that the bit squealed a lot when it started the first plunge and cut. Subsequent cuts didn’t squeal at all. I was using a 1/4" down cut endmill running the following parameters:
Golden Boy bit from CIC Workshop
Diameter 1/4"
Flute 3
Pass Depth 0.250
Step over 0.1
Speed 18000
Feed 100 inches/min
Plunge 50 inches/min
What does the squealing sound tell you? Should I change something?
Thank you for any help.
I used acrylic paint and then wiped the excess off. I sometimes use powder coat paint but the heat gun would mess up the base coat paint in this case.
It’s telling you its cutting 180 deg of the cutter surface on the first pass, the bit itself is designed differently than a normal spiral cutter due its objective of clearing. There is allot more groves that interact with the material being cut. In this case I think the wood is squealing instead of the bit!!
It’s called “slotting” when the tool is cutting the full width of the bit.
Your ears will be as good a guide as your eyes.
It’s noisy, you can slow the feed rate down (%50) until the slot is done and the normal stepover takes over.
This is the reason you make a pocket to cut out something instead of a contour.
It relieves the amount of times the bit has to slot.
@jtclose Thanks for the advice I’ll try slowing it down next time.
@Redlander I agree its the wood screaming.
I’m sure their marketing folks would tell you how great that is. You probably paid more for the deletion to “remove weight”. But, congrats on a fun purchase.
I haven’t cut anything yet, still in the reading and learning all I can Stage. I received my Pro 5 just after New Years, still have to organize my shop and get it set up. I have read through all of the post here and have learned a ton of information, even before making my first pretty pieces of firewood.
My question is, and I haven’t seen anything posted, has anyone ever used any LVP flooring planks, for stock to cut, it seems like it would be fairly inexpensive, for practice, or maybe even signs and coasters. I’m just curious of your experience, and outcomes. If you have, post some pictures, I would like to see them.
@DCush Been using “LVP flooring planks” for various custom projects for 5 or 6 years. I built fixtures to hold the raw parts. Good Luck
