Shopsmith Forums

Hi,

My wife has an idea she would like me to work on this fall. She would like me to make some yard signs, might stay out year round or at least say 9 months out of 12.

In one of the catalogs I get I remember seeing some plastic that has a green top and bottom layer and a whitish middle. When you route the letters the middle shows up while the top layer provides the color. Problem is I can't remember which catalog I saw it in.... I've look at a dozen but did not find it, was I dreaming?

At this point I'm interested in size and price and perhaps the trade name of the stuff. Ring any bells?

Thanks,

Ed

Yes that is the sort of material but much thinner then I just seen in the catalog (second post). I'm guess the stuff I saw was near a 1/2" thick, maybe a little less but in that area.

In the old days our names and room numbers and desk name holders were done with the thinner material, when I retired I took them with me but after this number of years I have no idea where they are. Since I throw very few things away they must be in a box somewhere. They were routed out with a pantograph sort of machine back then in our art department.

My wife wants to label something so the grand kids come over they can impress us with there reading skills and maybe learn a few things. If I can do it cheap enough it might be a fun project.

Ed

Reible
Can you use some 1/4" pine and glue a piece of dark plywood such as cherry over it and then stain the cherry whatever you want and then rout through the cherry to reveal the pine for the contrast that you want?
Bill V
PS on second thought you could glue a piece of formica over the pine and rout through the formica for the contrast.

Ed, I believe what you're looking for is an HDU signboard. It's available from most sign supply warehouses, but it's expensive. It can be routed, carved, sandblasted or cut with a waterjet. It comes in 1, 1-1/2 and 2" thicknesses, and precut to sign shapes. I'm familiar with it from my Sandcarving hobby. You can place a mask on it, and sandblast into it and get real nice dimensional signs. As far as cost, a 4x8' sheet of 1" thick HDU is $206.

Below is a sign a friend did in 2" thick HDU, ready for final paint.

[ATTACH]18114[/ATTACH]

wa2crk wrote:Reible
Can you use some 1/4" pine and glue a piece of dark plywood such as cherry over it and then stain the cherry whatever you want and then rout through the cherry to reveal the pine for the contrast that you want?
Bill V
PS on second thought you could glue a piece of formica over the pine and rout through the formica for the contrast.

That could also work.

Problem would be protecting it from weather without having to refinish it every few years.

I've never tried Formica out of doors, wonder how it holds it color against the sun. Anyone know?

Thanks for another idea.

Ed

tom_k/mo wrote:Ed, I believe what you're looking for is an HDU signboard. It's available from most sign supply warehouses, but it's expensive. It can be routed, carved, sandblasted or cut with a waterjet. It comes in 1, 1-1/2 and 2" thicknesses, and precut to sign shapes. I'm familiar with it from my Sandcarving hobby. You can place a mask on it, and sandblast into it and get real nice dimensional signs. As far as cost, a 4x8' sheet of 1" thick HDU is $206.

Below is a sign a friend did in 2" thick HDU, ready for final paint.

[ATTACH]18114[/ATTACH]

I have seen signs like this but had no idea what the material was. I'm going to look into it a bit and see if they have thinner versions and cheaper prices.

Thanks for getting back to me on this.

Ed

Yesterday I got a fresh (August) catalog from Woodcraft. Today since it was again to hot to do much in the shop I went paging into the copy and there on page 2G, (bottom left side) "New" "Sign Making Stock"!

I guess I saw it more like a month ago... Anyway for those who might not have the catalog the item is 153625, 1/2" x 24" x 24" $34.99

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/208400 ... -x-24.aspx

I'll spend a little more time searching the web for better prices now that I know the trademark name ColorCore. As it is it would be a little to expensive for me.

Thanks again to those that helped on my quest.

Ed