Aligning, gluing and sanding cut out letters

[CarvedTones]

So I had this great idea - use the same lettering as my wife used on my pouches:



and make a sign. I had a thin walnut board to cut letters out of and a cherry short I could work a backing board out of. So I blew the letters up larger, taped them on the walnut and went after it. I didn't follow the suggested route (aka pattern) faithfully but my minor deviations were consistent enough to introduce a slight scrawl that I am happy with:



The letters are just placed on the backing, not glued yet. I need to come up with a way to place them fairly accurately so I don't leave a glue trail if I move them around. I would just use yellow glue (it will be used outdoors, but stored indoors) but I am open to other suggestions. I think I need to sand the letters to round the sharp corner slightly. I was planning to do it with a radial (mop) sander on my rotary tool. Other ideas are to stone them (also with rotary tool) or not worry about it.

Suggestions are welcome...

 

[sawduster]

I use the piece of wood I cut the letter from as my spacing template. A little blue tape to hold the template, couple drops of CA in each cavity, drop the letters in, place another piece of wood on top and clamp for a short while. Just be careful not to glue the template down too :BangHead:

 

[CarvedTones]

That should work. I tossed the outer part, but it is still handy and each word was cut together. Thanks, bud!

 

[eyekode]

Nice idea! I struggled with alignment when I did the sign in the attachment.

But for glue I used epoxy and I was very happy with the amount of positioning I could do without making a mess.
Salem

 

[ehpoole]

A very nicely done sign, Andy. :icon_thum

You should be proud of your handiwork.

 

[ScottM]

Like Robert I use painters tape to establish a line. I then dry place the letters in position and then remove and glue them one at a time. For Glue I use Tilebond II. make sure to coat the entire letter and use a very very thin layer.

 

[cskipper]

Great looking signs! I've never cut separate letters, partially because I hadn't figured out how to space and align them either. Thanks for posting.

 

[CarvedTones]

After more thought, I am going to use a combination of Robert's and Scott's ideas. I cut the templates in half horizontally while cutting the letters out (cutting a path from letter to letter), so I can align the bottoms to a tape line with the tops in the template to get spacing right. Then I can mark the tape with little pencil marks where the letters touch. I will have to glue the top line first and wait for it to dry long enough to remove the tape before I can glue the bottom line.

Scott, by "yellow glue" I meant TB II so we are on the same page there. I will just have to be really careful not to touch them at all for a few minutes. It's fairly weather proof and holds great in this sort of application without clamping but it is slicker than owl snot for the first 10 minutes or so.

 

[Flute Maker]

Good looking sign Andy ! Man you are cooking with hot grease !! The ideas and execution keep rollin' along ! Keep up the good work !

 

[GeorgeM]

Thanks for the tips on aligning the letter. That has always been one of my problems. But these tips will sure make it easier.
Have a Blessed day.
George

 

[BrianBDH]

After more thought, I am going to use a combination of Robert's and Scott's ideas. I cut the templates in half horizontally while cutting the letters out (cutting a path from letter to letter), so I can align the bottoms to a tape line with the tops in the template to get spacing right. Then I can mark the tape with little pencil marks where the letters touch. I will have to glue the top line first and wait for it to dry long enough to remove the tape before I can glue the bottom line.

Scott, by "yellow glue" I meant TB II so we are on the same page there. I will just have to be really careful not to touch them at all for a few minutes. It's fairly weather proof and holds great in this sort of application without clamping but it is slicker than owl snot for the first 10 minutes or so.

You can shoot a couple 23 ga pins in them to keep them from moving until the "owl snot" dries.

Brian

 

[ReynoldsJay]

This looks great. My background is in graphic design, which includes typography. Your typography skills with wood are great. My favorite letter, and I'm guessing one of the most time consuming in cutting out, would be the 'S'.

I see this thread is a couple weeks old, so did you get it all glued down?

 

[CarvedTones]

This looks great. My background is in graphic design, which includes typography. Your typography skills with wood are great. My favorite letter, and I'm guessing one of the most time consuming in cutting out, would be the 'S'.

I see this thread is a couple weeks old, so did you get it all glued down?

I guess I neglected to post a completed pic here. Below is one. Because I decided to go rustic and use imperfection as a design element (sounds better that saying sloppy worked okay ), the letters were much easier to cut than if I had to stay dead on the lines. When you need to stay on line, the curved letters are actually not as bad as the straight segments of other letters where you need two freehand cuts to be exactly parallel.

View attachment HPIM3621.jpg