Prepping a Bike Frame for Powder Coating with Logos

Step 2: Cut Out the Logos

Instead of using stickers, I wanted a more textural and permanent look, so I cut the logos out of 0.0625" aluminum plate (6061-T6). I did this with our water-jet cutter. I know that this is cheating, but it is also rather inexpensive to hire a shop to do this.

If you are even more stubborn and would like to cut the logos out by hand:
1) Print out the logos
2) Laminate the paper to the aluminum plate with spray adhesive
3) Rough cut the logo with a jig-saw
4) Finish with jewelers' files (the same ones we wrecked whilst removing the paint)

A couple of suggestions for drawing curvey things that can be cut with waterjet software:
1) Simplify the curves as much as possible (get rid of extra knot points)
2) Omax has a curve simplification tool that is quite good
3) Omax also has a minimum radius tool that can fix tight corners

Comments

[robhybrid]

You could use a jewler's saw for this. It's a little tricky to get the hang of, but you can get some good results with a lot less investment.