After seeing some amazing new projects on the MOAG section today, I almost decided not to post. But I’ve been working on this for a week so I’m going to share it.
Someone I know requested a sign to go above their door to their garden. They sent a picture of a simple sign, and said “like that,” so I said ok…well…what she really wanted wasn’t like that.
It took a few days of back and forth emailing to get the dimensions down, and then the details. So the actual sign making part only took a day…plus sanding and sealing, etc (like having to go the next day to buy more wood to redo it). Well, it’s ready to deliver.
A couple things I would change if I was ever going to do this again…I thought if I butt the boards up next to each other, it wouldn’t show quite as much that they are separate boards. I was wrong, what I should’ve done, which I realized too late, was engrave it, and flip it over to cut. I forgot about the difference between the entrance and exit when the laser hits the wood, so the fronts never actually touch the way I did it.
Wood filler didn’t work for me, it was still obvious…so I think I really don’t understand how to use wood filler (I didn’t use any on the final sign).
Also, when I was splitting up the file to cut, I was focused on how to not waste as much wood as possible. So I didn’t even think about where I was separating the words. I ended up redoing the middle section of the sign because my first try I split the design right in a word…I changed the file and tried again, but I didn’t pay as much attention to symmetry, so I’m not happy about the spacing after the word “grows.”
I left the masking I applied on the butterflies because I like the color it added. There are a million coats of shellac and a clear coat over it, but it will probably peel eventually. She wanted a light wood and no stain or paint, so I think it’s ready to go now.
Anyways, long story short, I made a sign on my GF Basic. I don’t have a passthrough, so it needed to be done in pieces. The sign is approximately 6.5 feet long. No bananas, but I do have a shop towel roll in there for size. The first picture is the one she sent me when she asked if I could make a sign…I was expecting that size.