How do you paint a sign using two different colours?

[joe]

I'm completely out of suggestions. I'm amazed!

[Shane]

I'm completely out of suggestions. I'm amazed!

Is that a good or bad 'amazed' ?

[Iceman567]

I did an experiment this afternoon. I sprayed this slab of Huon Pine with a few layers of clear coat. Once all dried, I put engraved it using the CNC. Painted the engraved areas with black paint just using a paint brush and not worrying about putting black paint on the top surface.

Once that dried I sanded off the surface and hit it with another layer of clear coat. The clear coat did the trick and stopped the paint from being absorbed into the timber.

I should be able to use this idea to protect the top surface of other signs where it is painted.

Thanks Eugene for those links. I'll check them out.

I use the same method for an ENGRAVED sign. Engrave sign, spray clear coat into and around letters, paint, sand off sealer/excess paint. Seal with appropriate finish. Works well.

[genek]

mr. zoccoli: what font did you use on the sign live to ride like that font...
thanks

[letterman7]

There are several ways to do this...I am not a sign maker, so take it for what it's worth.

In the past I have pre-finished the sign blank and let it cure really well - sometimes this takes a few days depending on humidity. Then cover the face of the sign blank with GerberMask Ultra II - It is not cheap, but it works pretty well. Then carve through the GMU2 and put your design into the sign. Clean it, and then paint or size the areas you want to paint or gold leaf. It holds a pretty crisp edge with little bleed as long as you use sharp tools.

-B

This. Since I don't like carving through paint hand having the worry about the second color not having the same 'surface' as the main color (or, with gold leaf, having to try to set a gild on a new prime) I usually paint the entire sign with whatever it's going to be. Then I'll run a paint mask from FDC's 2905 series (Brady's Gerbermask works well, too) on my plotter using the same file I set up the carve file with, and reverse weed the copy to be painted or gilded. Place the mask over the carved letters and away you go. A little more work, but very little cleanup and no worries about tearing the mask while carving.

You can do the same thing if you don't have a sign plotter, but you'll need a roll of pre-mask (transfer tape). Put the transfer tape over the carved copy and run a pencil, side down, over the edges of the letters. Peel the mask up and put it on your stencil mask and hand-cut the letters that way. Put more transfer tape over the stencil to move the mask back to the sign.

[Iceman567]

mr. zoccoli: what font did you use on the sign live to ride like that font...
thanks

That is 'Airstream'. Free download from www.dafont.com

[donek]

That is 'Airstream'. Free download from www.dafont.com

I don't do signs, but we just did 125 of these boxes. We just did the v-carving 0.020in too deep, spray painted, and then planed off 0.020in.

[Shane]

I ended up making these wooden scrabble letters by the technique I described earlier. The tiles are actually 20cm square, 9mm thick MDF. Painted white and then a couple of coats of clear varnish. The numbers/letters were engraved next down to a maximum depth of about 6mm. I hand painted the letters and wiped off the excess. Once dried, I sanded back the surface lightly to cut back into the varnish and remove any excess black paint that was still left on the top surface. Two more coats of varnish applied and this is the end result.

Shane.

[brain]

has anyone tried wax? like a block of parrifin? not sure how everyone else does it, but i always run them back through the planer or drum sander. what about soap? i imagine anything to seal off the precut wood would do the job. and instead of gerbermask, what about that stuff you put over carpet during construction? seems reasonably strong, yet comes up clean. i'm completely new at this so please take it for what its worth, just a few ideas to ponder on.

brian

[chiloquinruss]

I use the same method as Brady but I add one more step. After I cut the vcarve I very lightly spray on a misting of 'clear' to seal the edge of the mask. This way any bleed will be 'clear'. Then do the rest of da' Brady steps. Russ