LUX Visual Effects - Hardwood Sign Letters

We completed the LUX visual effects company sign in august of 2010, it was made from local storm-fall western red maple.  The tree fell not far from where the CNC machine shop is.    

The sign measures 66" wide by 39" tall, and 3" deep.  The lighting and the backdrop were completed by another company.

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We have an onsite 24" sawmill that we used to cut the boards from the logs.  The boards were then air dried at the sawmill for about 12 months.  

In this image the raw planks are awaiting selection.   We picked the pieces for the LUX letters that had the most interesting figuring and grain shapes and patterns.  The boards were cut to size and planed down to a uniform thickness using a standard 14" tablemount planer.

After planing and jointering, we glued up the pieces for each letter and clamped them for a few days.  

This glue-up will become the face of the "U".

After the glue-up panel comes out of the clamps, we use the CNC machine to plane both sides of the new panel to ensure perfectly flat pieces to work with.

Here we see the 4 portions of the "X" being cut out on the CNC table.

Sanding the "L" 

All the letter pieces were sanded up to 400-grit.  

Here the "L" is all ready for sealing.

We used a lot of thin coats of a polyurethane based danish oil to finish this one. 

After the many coats were applied to the letters, I sanded them down through the various grits, all the way up to a wet 4000-grit foam pad, and lastly, a creme based cut polish.

The letters in their final installation.  We love the juxtaposition of the natural wood surface and the almost "neon" glow of the LED lights.  The colour reflections off the high gloss finish really stands out when viewed in person!


The lighting and the backplate was manufactured and installed by Paxton Downard at Pushkar Props Services inc.