My daughter and son-in-law just bought a house built in 1840 in a very quaint community. (Walking distance to a covered bridge built in 1870). The doctor that built the house for his family saw his patients in a 3 room cottage directly behind the house.
There is a very weathered sign on the side of the cottage “Cherry Street Cottage”. I’d like to do something on our Glowforge when it arrives to replace it. I’d like it to have cherry red lettering (of course!) and not sure what color for the background.
If you mask the wood, so that you can paint your etched lettering … then it will be difficult to paint the background. I’m assuming I can’t paint the background before putting it into the Glowforge with new masking.
If anyone could provide any suggestions for me, I’d really appreciate it. New to anything with woodworking … and certainly new to laser work.
No, you can certainly do that. You can use masking designed for lasers (lots of suggestions for sources from folks here) or even just blue painters tape.
After it’s painted and you mask the whole thing, laser it and then paint the engraved area. Then just remove the masking. Because it’s low-tack you shouldn’t have an issue with underlying paint lift.
I would also suggest that you hang onto the old sign (could be worth more than the cottage some day!), maybe even incorporate some aspect of its design into the new one, for continuity’s sake.
I wonder if there’s a way to bring out the lettering in the wood, then scan it, then 'forge it on new wood but being able to faithfully reproduce the original text to pay tribute.
If I squint just right, I see a smaller “ST.” and some other 3-letters between the two knots in the bottom right corner. I want to say “NYC”, but perhaps there’s some clue there based upon what state or town the house is in.
