Reservation Sign Holder for Pavilion

Made on a Glowforge
1

My church built a new pavilion for gatherings late last year, and now that the weather is turning nice people are asking to reserve it for events.

They purchased an acrylic sign holder for one of the posts, but the winds on the hill ripped it off the first day. So one of the staff at the church reached out to me to see if I could make something for them.

IMG_4096
IMG_4096816Ă—612 144 KB

After hearing what happened to the first sign holder, I definitely over engineered this one. It is 1/4" maple plywood for the back, and 1/4" green-glass acrylic for the front. And I definitely used to much glue, but I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t fall apart. I dipped the plywood backing in resin as an attempt to make it weather-proof.

IMG_4097
IMG_4097612Ă—816 128 KB

I engraved the churches logo and mission statement on the back to be shown when no sign is on display (pre-resin-dip). I was happy with how it turned out, minus the excess glue…

36 Likes
2

Sorry about the excess glue, but I dare say it won’t be blowing away!

14 Likes
3

I think it turned out really nice!

14 Likes
4

I love everything about this: 1) that they knew to ask for your help, 2) the over-engineered-ness of your design, 3) how nicely it matches the wood behind it, 4) the engraved church logo and inspired mission statement. Great job!

11 Likes
5

You could always cut trim pieces to go on the front, giving it a “picture frame” look. If you still have PG veneer, you wouldn’t even have to worry about glue.

15 Likes
6

Very cool

7 Likes
7

I think it looks great. If you have to make another for any reason (like another church requests one after someone sees this one!) you could always color the glue and make sure it’s on nice and thick all the way around. Then it’ll have a colored frame and even it it gets a little blotchy, it’ll just add to the look. My thinking anyway! :slight_smile:

9 Likes
8

Nice!

6 Likes
9

They didn’t ask me to engrave anything on it, so they were so surprised when I gave it them. They were amazed and grateful.

6 Likes
10

This technique does work but it is very tedious. All you need is a can of acetone from The Home Depot.

4 Likes
11

I have used acetone to weld acrylic to acrylic. The glue was for the acrylic to the wood.

The acetone also caused a bunch of tiny cracks in the acrylic. I have been told you can heat up the acrylic (temper) in the oven at a low temp for a long time to help prevent that, but I have never tried.

5 Likes
12

1 hr/mm of thickness at 170F :slight_smile:

But less time can still help. I’ve seen people report 1hr for 1/8" (3mm) was effective.

4 Likes
13

Perfect solution. (and I’m out of likes so you’re getting a “virtual like” :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

4 Likes
14

There, I’ve loaned you one of mine! Is that how this works? :smirk:

4 Likes
15

That’s what friends are for :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

3 Likes
16

I am considering making a new one and using less glue. I really just want it to look perfect.

But, I am going to let them try it out first and see if any other changes would help it work better or not.

3 Likes
17

Maybe you could “frame” it with a 1/2" wide colored acrylic just around the edges on top of the clear acrylic? That would hide the glue and add to the visibility of it. You could even use the same color as your church interior or something.

3 Likes