How to Make Wooden Signs With a Router

This will give you a basic idea of how to make beautiful wood signs using a router.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Lumber of your choice
• a saw, preferably a table saw.
• a router
• black dye for wood or leather
• wood stain
• wood finish of choice
• sand paper in various grits
• electric palm sander, if desired

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   First things first. You need to choose the wood you would like to use. There are limitless possibilities, so my suggestion is you go to your local lumber yard and look at the various types of wood, and choose the one that you like the best. Price may be an issue for you, in which case, you should go with pine, or another inexpensive wood and then use a stain to achieve the desired color. Your local hardware store is full of different wood stains and sample pieces to help you match your preferred color.

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   Now you need to decide what you want your sign to say, and also the arrangement of the words on the sign. Capital letters should be at least 5 inches tall and lower case letters about in inch smaller. If you make the letters too small, it will be very difficult to maintain detail in your work. After some practice, and after learning about the many various plunge router bits available, you will be able to make your letters smaller and add more detail, but I suggest starting simple for your first few signs. Anyway, after you decide what you want your sign to say, and how you want it arranged, you need to trace the design in pencil on the board, and then cut the board to the desired size. A table saw or circular saw will work best for this, but a hand saw will work as well.

3. 
    
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   Now you will want to router out the letters you have traced on your sign. You will need a plunge bit for the router. It will look something like the picture shown here, but there are many types and sizes. I recommend talking with a pro at your local hardware store to get tips on which bit to use for your job. After you have chosen a bit, you need to set it's depth to 1/2 the boards thickness, or less. The deeper you go, the more definition your sign will have, however if you go too deep, you will weaken the structural integrity of the board and it is likely to split on you, costing you money, and causing a lot of frustration and disappointment. As you begin to cut out your letters, be sure to start on a strait edge of the letter, if possible. Hold the router tight, and keep a close eye on your pencil marks, and above all, work slow and steady. Try to keep the router moving at all times, because you may burn the wood if you keep the bit rotating in one place too long. Remember you can always lift out the bit if you need a rest, or to sweep away excess sawdust. I suggest practicing on some scrap wood until you get the feel for the router.

4. 
    
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   Now that you have cut out all the letters on your sign, you have another option. You can either leave the outside edges of your sign as they are, or you can change router bits and edge router your sign. This is a different type of bit with a small wheel at the bottom of the bit which allows you to control the depth the bit cuts into the wood. Again, there is almost a limitless amount of these types of bits, so it all boils down to what you like. Whatever bit you decide to use, the method is the same. You need to choose the bit depth you would like, and it's definitely advisable to practice on scrap until you like the look. 1/8 of an inch difference in depth with the same bit will produce a completely different look, so be sure to play with it until you are really happy with what you see. Now start in the middle of one of the sides of your sign, and draw the router toward you. Work the router around all the sides of your sign until it's done.

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   Now it's time to sand. This part' s easy. You can do it by hand, or with a sanding block, but an orbital palm sander is better. Start with a medium grit sandpaper, and work your way down to a very fine grit paper, making sure you don't leave any rough edges or splinters sticking out.

6. 
    
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   Finally, the finish work. If you want your letters to pop out, you can dye them in with leather dye, or you can paint them black, or any other color you want. At this point, you would also stain your sign with a wood stain, if you wanted to change the color of the wood. Since there are so many options for stain, you should ask the pro at your local hardware store for help. The same goes with the finish. You can go with many different types of urethanes, polyurethane, etc, so again, hit up the hardware store for advice. Follow the directions on the stain and finish exactly as written, and finish off your sign. Once everything is dry, you can attach hangers and chain to the top of the sign, and hang it up where it's meant to be.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want a lot of detail in your letters, or a specific look, you can just go to your word processing program on your computer and play with different fonts and different sizes of letters until you see what you like. Print them out and trace them onto your sign, and you will have a perfect outline for every letter.
• Working with power tools can be very dangerous. Make sure you know how to use all your tools, and always wear the proper safety equipment. Especially wear eye protection as sawdust tends to fly everywhere when using saws and routers.

[callmegoof]

on 5/30/2009 Very good article that a friend of mine wrote.