Paint Filled Sign: Corian Dimensional Carving

Using my CNCROi.com logo to make a custom paint filled sign works great using my CNC router, this Corian dimensional carving too many steps to achieve but you’ll see most of those in today’s blog post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb-rQCDsIwM/

In order to produce a custom paint filled sign, the first step is removing material, this gives the paint something to stick to while in a few steps forward, the surface can be sanded flush, creating the contrast you see in this sign.

To do the carving involved with this custom paint filled sign, I used CNCROi.com‘s ShopBot Desktop CNC router, it’s a fantastic machine for this application, although we also have it’s massive cousin as well in our shop, for this type of work, it’s really hard to beat the efficiency present in this smaller machine.

Corian is a wonderful material for making all sort of items, here’s how I made the table tabs which you see in this video and photos of this paint filled sign.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qC5FNKLLTA/

Carving Corian is a time intensive process, CNCROi.com doesn’t cut corners when doing this step because it becomes apparent directly when viewing custom signage, especially when it comes to paint filling which reveals all the flaws during production.

Corian is a unique material in that the pattern is all the way though the material, similar to wood grain but a lot more static in that there is little variation across the half inch thick slab.

Even looking at these pictures where our CNC router is removing material from the soon to be paint filled sign, it’s hard to distinguish between what was carved and what wasn’t, with wood, this would be a lot more apparent.

Using CNCROi.com‘s laser to produce paint filled sign is a wonderful alternative to using our CNC router but the effects are different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFRpv16enq8/

If you look closely, you can see the pencil cross-hairs I’ve made on the surface of the Corian to make sure I started making this paint filled sign in the dead center of this piece of Corian.

The nice thing about Corian dust is that there isn’t much, compared to wood or just about any other material, it doesn’t tend to stay airborne very long and just settles pretty much where it was produced.

Unlike wood dust though, Corian, which is a compressed acrylic, does have a static charge and sticks to everything during production, those aren’t snow flakes, they are Corian flakes!

Here’s another video showcasing the results of carving Corian using this same CNC router, this time, with a palm tree which you saw in the background of my video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUHsKj-gHXc/

CNCROi.com has made lots of custom Corian jobs though the years, from custom house number signs to actual products, like the ones holding this piece of Corian in place on our ShopBot Desktop.

After the carving is complete on this custom paint filled sign, it’s time to cut it out of the Corian but to maintain the strength of this entire sign, a small lip about 1/16″ or 1-2 mm is left on the bottom to keep everything held down in place.

Now allowing everything to actually separate is important for custom signage, this is a paint filled sign, as such, with sanding, we want a flush sanding disk across the entire sign, including the edges, thus leaving support material is vital to prevent rounding over the edges of this CNCROi.com sign.

Here are some custom Corian house number signs I also made at CNCROi.com with similar black paint filling, just using a white Corian instead of a marbled one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzScZjA4v1I/

No matter how many pictures I take of this, it will always be hard to differentiate this soon to be paint filled sign where the carving was done and where it wasn’t.

It does look like marble though, very beautiful and Michelangelo would be very proud of this!

Shining light on this custom Corian dimensional signage, you can see a bit better what was carved and what wasn’t, and how important a role paint will play in the production of this sign.

House number signs are a wonderful application for Corian, it’s incredibly durable in just about any climate and your design options are limitless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KCSIuY_rKw/

First step in creating a paint filled sign after carving is painting EVERYTHING, including the surface, this will be easily sanded off after the paint has been allowed to dry at CNCROi.com.

Once the paint is dry, this is already looking pretty amazing, but the true reveal will happen only after the surface paint is removed, then the incredible contrast and pop will occur.

After sanding the surface of the paint filled sign, it’s time to finally cut it out of the Corian, I love using my bandsaw for this application!

Another application for Corian are custom cutting boards and serving trays, really, it’s an incredibly flexible material for a whole wide of custom applications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u35dlFTKMA/

The sign is starting to come to life, it has a layer of dust still on it, but under that dust is a layer of paint that’s black as night just waiting to make the marble like texture of the Corian pop.

Before cleaning-up the Corian paint filled sign, we got to remove the slight ledge that was created by the CNC router to provide a platform for the sanding to be done to perfection at CNCROi.com.

Above is before, below is after, it’s starting to look very good now!

Just for contrast, compare the sign made using our CNC laser and the one with our CNC router, each has their nuances but we can also mix and match them however you want at CNCROi.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l28w_NX_z1s/

Applying a seal over the entire surface after cleaning helps the paint to really pop, going from a light black to a jet black, this also greatly improves the gloss of the paint and the Corian surface itself, after some polishing of course.

The custom CNCROi.com sign is now finished, it looks amazing in any light, back lighting or front…

and a close-up of the sign reveals all the incredible beauty of the overall custom paint filled Corian dimensional sign.

Have a Corian job? Contact CNCROi.com right now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7lYfxH6PmE/