We're using a router for a general store sign

[PineRidge]

Recently the wife and I decided to open a general store within the Hartville Market Place here in our area. Since the store opening is planned for sometime in early Nov. we have a bit of wiggle room to get things together.

Since the store will be based on an old west general store theme we needed something that resembeled a hand carved wood sign for the shop.

Keep in mind that I have never attempted a project of this sort but nevertheless thought it would be a good project and give me a good excuse to add a few tools to my pole barn.

We decided to go with 2" cedar for depth and picked up a 10' length of 2" X 12" from the local mill. We had one side planed to clean the face up, and had both long sides run through the jointer in preperation to be glued up.

Here you can see my prelimanery design that was made in Paint Shop Pro. Keep in mind that each piece of the puzzle is actually a full sheet of 8-1/2" X 11" paper tiled together.

The second picture is a more refined drawing.

And the final drawing was printed by Kinko's with our drawing saved to a memory chip.

 

[PineRidge]

Here the cedar has been cut, glued up, and clamped. It's in my office because we have experienced rain and humid weather which doesn't aid glue curing.

 

[PineRidge]

Initial sanding.

 

[PineRidge]

Now I place old fashioned carbon paper under the drawing, tape down the paper to the cedar and go over the outline of the drawing with an ink pen to transfer the design.

 

[roxynoodle]

That will be a really nice sign.

Rain in Ohio this year? More like monsoons! I'm hoping with all this rain, Mother Nature will need to balance out and give us less snow.

 

[PineRidge]

I then take a soft pencil and fill in the lines after the pattern is removed so they can be seen easier.

I'm also fixin to drill a hole at all inside corners to aid in cutting out the design.

 

[PineRidge]

Here the wood blank has now been drilled at all inside corners.

 

[PineRidge]

Here the blank is being cut with the aid of a sabre saw.

 

[PineRidge]

Now it's sanding, sanding, and more sanding before the carving starts.

My latest eBay acquisition justcame today via UPS. A 2 HP Porter Cable plunge router. I'm still waiting on a set of 50 tungsten carbide tipped router bits before I start carving.

Think I start these projects for the new tools?

 

[Casco1]

I did something similar for my garage. I found I had dificulty following the pencil lines with the router. What I did was use wallpaper paste and glued the pattern to the sign blank and just routered through the paper. When I was done I washed the sign with water, softened the pattern and it came right off.