Plaque for Outdoors

[novascroller]

i have someone who wants me to make them something that will be outside (probably a house marker but they didn't specify exactly what yet). what would be a good wood to use and what kind of finish would protect it the best? cedar holds up well right?

[jttheclockman]

Cedar is a very good outdoor wood. Mahagony is also. you can use MDO and paint it. They use it for road signs. As far as finish look at your stains and finishes for fences and decks. A spar varnish or marine varnish is a very good uv protecting varnish.

[Woodbutcher68]

I made this out of Walnut and Hard Maple. 4 coats of semi-gloss poly. So far-so good!

[PiALaModem]

Out of curiosity, Did you bevel cut and push the letters up, or did you cut the letters separately and attach them to the background?

I am guessing at that scale you did the latter.

[Woodbutcher68]

I used a font in Word to create the letters, cut them out and glued them to the board. Next time I'll use PrintShop or a similar program that lets me print in "coloring book" mode, that is just the outline of the letters.

[Jollyroger]

Plaque for Outdoors

Woodbutcher 68

Since you have 'Word', you can use the Word Art functions and print out lettering using only outlines in any font. I don't want to use all that ink either.

[urband]

WordArt

Thanks for the info on WordArt. What a great feature! I've had Word for years and didn't know it was there!

Dan