Thinking about the outside of the box.

I had an opportunity to give my first presentation last Friday at the first CarveWright conference.  Users from all over gathered near Houston to talk about this amazing little machine and what it could do.  We shared techniques, improvements, materials, methods and ideas. 
I took along some of my signs and showed the "rocket sign" for the first time in public.  I couldn't have been happier with the response.
Along with that, I had an opportunity to meet a representative from a company called Azek Building Products.
They make a PVC product being used widely in the home construction industry for trim and other applications.
It seems some experiments had been going on with carving into their material.  I talked at length with Kirby (The representative from Azek) and obtained some samples.  There were immediately two things I liked about the product: 1. It was even more dense than 30 lb. HDU 2. At high temperatures, the material can be shaped.  In other words, at high temperature you can bend it and form it.  Clearly that's not an option with HDU!(I've been informed by my friend Dan that you CAN, in fact, bend HDU with heat...I stand corrected).

During the long drive home from Texas, I started thinking about possibilities for this material. First, I needed to carve some and see how it handled.  Beyond that, I began thinking about wild shapes, cool signs and innovative ways to use this material beyond trim or siding for a house....then it hit me.  Imagine a customized home that incorporated special designs in the very siding of the home...grape leaves, trees, celtic knots....family names. It could be carved for wrapping mail box posts and sign posts...I boggled at the thought of it. On the small scale, it would be a reasonably priced way to bring true custom options to home builders...on a big scale, it could represent a total rethinking of how we personalize the homes in which we live.

I raced home and hugged my wife and daughter and then headed for the shop.
How does it carve?  Let me put it this way, once I see how it holds up to paint, this may be the only product I use for my custom signs, and just maybe....to help customize many other people's homes.  Let the dreaming begin!  I carved up a logo I've had handy lately (ha!) and then I really went nuts and cooked it at 350 degrees for 4 minutes on the grill...that's right, I threw it on the barby! Then with oven mits I bent it into a nice curve and let it cool down to rigid in very short order. Now THAT you cannot do with HDU!