Largest Wood Sign to Date - step by step pics from raw board to completed sign

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

This is our largest wood sign we have done on our CNC to Date. It measures 32 inches wide and 18 inches tall and is a solid inch thick

Mrs. Schlatter ordered it as a Christmas gift for her husband for the entrance to a new piece of property they recently purchased. The previous owner had a sign hanging at the entrance but took it with them when they sold the property. She wanted to replace it with a sign of their own.

I had the sign back to her in three days. The majority of that was a day for the glue up to dry and a day for the application and drying of the polyurethane finish.

Below are pictures from start to finish. Not shown is how I had to joint and glue up three boards to make the larger panel.

The raw panel ready for routing:



 

Just after Routing on the Digital Wood Carver CNC machine we own



  

  

  

 

Apply some spray ink, not spray paint to highlight the routed areas



 

Then some final sanding and three coats of spar polyurethane to give it a high gloss finish



  

  

  

[Raider Bill]

DanG that's NICE!!! 8)

[mesquite buckeye]

Wowee Zowee.  ;D

[thecfarm]

Love that verse and love that sign just as much. You have that machine mastered!!!!

[samandothers]

Great idea and great sign!  The wood, ink, finish really pop!

[Magicman]

Pop, is the right word.  Eye Popping for sure.   

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thank you all for your inspiring comments. I truly respect each and  every one of you and your associated opinions. In addition to your words of praise, one of the most rewarding aspects of doing this signs was seeing the face, and hearing the comments of the woman that ordered it when she came to get it. She actually began to tear up and gave me a hug just before she left. Always nice when you get a hug from someone you did not even know 4 days earlier and who just found you from a craigslist ad.

30 years ago, I could have routed something almost like that by hand...maybe just not as precise or with as much detail. The two auto accidents and associated muscle and nerve damage have left me with only about 30% use of my left arm and left hand and regrettably with frequent muscle spasms and cramps in the left arm and hand. I just cant take the jarring and counter the rotational torque of the router and cant route a straight line by hand to save my life any more.

Thanks to the Digital Wood Carver CNC and now the Epilog Laser, I am still able to be creative, stay in the game, feel productive and create works of art. There are some, even at my local woodworking club, that consider this cheating by having a CNC machine do the routing for me, and to some extent, I may be inclined to agree with them. I would have to respond and say that there are still elements of wood working that I am still doing when i use the CNC on a sign like this. I still plane and joint the lumber, glue up the panel with bisquet joints reinforcements, re-plane and re-sand the final blank and cut it to size on the saw. After routing, i still sand,  and apply accent color and high gloss finish. And then there is the programming aspect which does take some learning and talent to do, so it is not like you are just printing a flyer on the printer. There still are some wood working skills involved, and at least those are within my physical limitations. My other alternative would be to miserable and sit an cry about what I used to be able to do before the two accidents, but that is just not my style. Thanks to these two machines I cant wait to get to the work shop and be creative and in many ways it allows me to do things I never would have attempted by hand.

[mesquite buckeye]

I'm glad you are still in the game. ;D 8) 8) 8)

[thecfarm]

There are purists in any hobby,collection, or really anything in life. Enjoy yourself and as long as it's not promoted as free hand work,so what.  :

[Bill Gaiche]

Very nice indeed. bg

[Left Coast Chris]

The end result is a lot nicer than free hand work.  It will also advertise your new capabilities.  Get ready for more customers!

[Banjo picker]

Very nice.  I have built a few out of concrete...sandblasting...and stencils... the wood looks much better.   Banjo

[isawlogs]

 That is one nice looking sign right there.

Can you tell me why use ink rather then paint, well you don't have to share trade secrets, just wondering why one rather then the other.  :P  Inquireing mind needs feeding  ;D :D

[WDH]

You matched those cedar boards very well.  That is a gorgeous sign. 

[clww]

Incredible sign! 8) 8) 8)
I may be ordering one in the near future.

[ChuckinVa]

Beautiful work. Thanks so much for sharing. The talent on this forum is simply amazing.

[samandothers]

I agree with Cfarm's comments.  You are enjoying, being productive and making great looking stuff carry on! 

[bedway]

Let me say that is one beautiful sign, regardless how it was created. We each work within our talents and abilities. Years ago when i had my health and youth i went from sun up till sun down. Now i go for ten minutes and rest for an hour. Also sneaking in a two hour nap to get me thru the day. ;D My son in law likes to kid me about using power tools for everything. I tell him its called working smarter, and some day he will understand.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Omg.....you are getting better and better at your work. I can see now you have a talent.
This is really, really very nice. Keep the pics coming! 
I could get $300.00 for that sign.  ;D

[Cedarman]

Busy Beaver, you do know how to make a wondrous sign.  Hugs are good!!
Was the person chiding you for cheating using a mallet and chisels to make their signs? :D :D

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

I'm glad you are still in the game. ;D 8) 8) 8)

Thanks much my friend. Not going anywhere real soon as far as I know. Woodworking is my #1 hobby since i was 14 and took a wood shop class. Never turned back and kept looking for new challenges

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

There are purists in any hobby,collection, or really anything in life. Enjoy yourself and as long as it's not promoted as free hand work,so what.  :

Nope, I am dead honest about how i do it. Most people come right to the house and watch me layout their sign on the computer and I show them the machine that will route their signs. I think it kind of makes them have more confidence by seeing the quality equipment and how little is left to chance

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thank you Bill, Left Coat, Sam, Chuck, Bedway, Wdh, Clww, Isawlogs and Banjo for the kind words of encouragement.

Cedarman.  I have never seen one person that has ever criticized me for using a CNC ever make a sign of their own. By the way that is your wood in the picture that I sent my worker to get last year. Takes Quality wood from a great sawyer to make a nice sign my friend.

Poston40lt -  Dave If you can sell them for $300 then we need to talk. We will both be rich real soon. I'll keep that router going night and day.....heck I will even buy a second one.

[Warbird]

Wow!     It's beautiful!  Absolutely stunning.

How heavy is that thing?  I'm wondering what shipping cost would be like to Alaska on something like that.  One of my best friends is a forester and something like that would make an awesome birthday gift.

[Hilltop366]

Nice work on the sign BBL

I could get $300.00 for that sign.  ;D

I can see it now......  "Velvet Dave's sigh Emporium" ......On the spot financing OAC.

What's it gona take to get you to take home the sigh? ;D

[jamesamd]

Most excelent!Your still in it. 8)

Jim

[Peter Drouin]

Good job 

[ET]

BB, you got that mastered. Im still printing letters on plain white paper and use spray glue to attach to sign boards then router out with one of those expensive half size routers that your hand fits nicely around.  An awful lot of work; thanks for sharing!  Wonderful job!

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Wow!     It's beautiful!  Absolutely stunning.

How heavy is that thing?  I'm wondering what shipping cost would be like to Alaska on something like that.  One of my best friends is a forester and something like that would make an awesome birthday gift.

Warbird

I did not weigh it, but I am going to guess it was less than 20 pounds. Eastern Red cedar is not very heavy.

Don't know how big a sign you want, but the USPS has those flat rate game board boxes that can take a 24 inch x 14 inch sign, regardless of weight and send it anywhere in the USA of about $16.50 with 2 to 3 day service to boot. Have done quite a few that fit in that box.  Makes shipping pretty reasonable for a sign of that size.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thanks again all for the nice words. I really do enjoy doing those signs. Would be more then happy to be doing about 10 of those a week when I retire in a few years.

[Martha White Nelson]

Very nice work!!  It's beautiful.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thank you Martha. Nice to meet you.

[nmericle53]

Wow! That sign is beautiful. I am new and want to learn as much as I can. I have a scroll saw but haven't had the time to play. My husband builds and I do the finishing . We work together well. Just wanted to post and let you know it is a work of art and you did an awesome job.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

nmericle53

A pleasure to meet you and thank you so much for your kind words.

You and hubby sound like you have a tremendous amount in common with my wife and I. We are both pretty good at generating sawdust ( about 30 gallons a week just from out home based workshop ). And like you, we work well side by side on many projects and each have our areas of specialization.

She loves to turn smaller items on the lathe such as ice cream scoops, pens, and duck calls. Here she is at a craft show with all the items she made herself. I just do the wood glue ups for her. She does all the rest.



  

 

I prefer the CNC machine, turning bowls, making cutting boards, and designing cleaver wood blank glue ups that we sell on our website and on ebay and have done so since 2003.

I have done a fair amount of scroll sawing in my life. Don't do much of it in the past 5 years since it is hard for me to control the wood with the limited use in my left arm and hand ( auto accident related).

If you like fretwork, then you ought to see what you can do with a piece of wood and a laser beam. We just bought and Epilog laser engraver/ cutter and you would not believe the details it can engrave into and cut into thinner pieces of wood, and the speed that it can do it with. Here is a recent engraving we did as soon as we got the machine home. It took less than 2 minutes to do a 3 x 5 inch image. We have since made this image a bit smaller ( business card size) and added magnetic backs to them. Our intent is to give them out as memo holding or refrigerator magnets to our new customers when we get them.



 

[Phorester]

Very nice work.  As far as using CNC instead of traditional carving, most of us tend to get beat up in accidents as we go through life.  You have to adjust what you can do after an accident or serious illness. You are lucky that you didn't let yours slow you down; you can still do what you like to do, and do it with style.

[justallan1]

Beautiful work BBL. You have a great thing going for you and your good at it.

Allan

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thank you Allan and Phorester.

I really enjoy the high tech wood working tools. I am having a blast with the laser engraver...that is when customers are not tying it up with their want and desires.

I went from no customers for laser engraving in week three of December to the point where i am now engraving 8 hours a week in Mid January. Is not taking things long to get going. Just picked up a job last night engraving 40 cutting boards and am laser engraving 50 leather bracelets Friday night.

[thecfarm]

And it has started. Isn't it great when a plan works out.

[Magicman]

Just like the field of dreams.  You build it and they will come.

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Very true Magicman

TheCfarm - It is great when a plan at least goes close to what you anticipate. This plan is exceeding my expectations by leaps and bounds. I have not spent a cent on advertising and already the phone is ringing about every third day or so with new opportunities. It is a very versatile machine.

[Chuck White]

Beautiful sign indeed!   ;)

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Thank you Chuck. I really enjoy doing the signs and see them come to life and absolutely love working in ERC. Those boards there are from cedarman, just to give credit where credit is due. About a year and a half ago, I sent one of my part time employees down to Cedar USA and bought 2000 bf of ERC off Richard. I use most of it on our signs and turning projects, and do sell a bit here and there to the locals. Real nice wood to work with and with colors that you cant find in lots of other species.

[blackfoot griz]

Very impressive work BBL.

Could you route individual boards then ship allowing the end customer to glue up and finish them?  That could get around a lot of the shipping issues.

[jueston]

i think the issue would be getting perfect alignment, even with dowels or dominos, it might not line up perfectly....

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

Blackfoot and Jueston.

What you suggest would not be impossible, provided the party ordering the item was agreeable to doing a glue up once they got it.  It would be easy enough to use dowels to pin the boards together and clamp it down well to the CNC table bed, route the sign, seperate the boards and do all the finishing steps, and then box them up with dowels for re-assembly. Just have not had any requests to do something like that yet.

Fred

[1woodguy]

  Nice looking work!
 
I made a lot of signs in the eightys by hand
 
Would have to go high tec tools now
my eyes see crooked and the older joints nerves don't work as well

My hand carving went to routers and bits with a little chisel work to make it look hand carved for the purests
And it cut way down on the time

A cnc and or lazer I have have thought about
Can you make and add your own designs?

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

1woodguy

Pretty much in the same boat as you. Have nerve damage and muscle damage due to bad auto wreck. I used to be fairly decent hand routing signs but now i cant control router freehand worth a darn.

With both CNC and laser you can pretty much engrave any images and designs. You can create your own images as you wish. In fact I do it all the time.