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Making a Sign for the Homestead

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Created on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 04:13

Last Updated on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 04:19

Published on Wednesday, 03 August 2011 04:13

Written by seedspreader

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Since the written word has existed, there have been signs. Signs have been used for both informative purposes and advertising purposes from early on. The discovery of Pompeii shows that even in the ancient world that signs were used regularly. Sometimes a sign can be as simple as a picture, sometimes it's a long description of words stringing a thought. Sometimes it's a basic combination of both. Like I made a sign for our homestead. Why, you ask? Why do you need a sign? Well, the simple answer is that I don't NEED one. I wanted one. We will be selling eggs, produce and other services (sign making maybe?) and we wanted a way to communicate that. Sure, simple signs are probably just as effective, but I wanted something a bit nicer. The Amish use simple signs and they are effective to some extent.   I've never made a sign before, but I had and idea of something I might like. So I decided to go for it.I wanted a sign that captured the essence of our homestead.  We live in Bear Lake but picked the Spanglish version "Oso Lago" so it was not just a simple "Bear Lake" sign. (Thus the name of the Blog). I was determined to use simple, cheap and readily available materials. In other words, I had sticker shock at the price of "nice" wood at the stores.  Have you seen how much oak, prime pine, or even #1 Poplar costs, let alone if I get all exotic with cedar.  So I began to make my sign using pieces of 2x4 that I had ripped while making my Garden Tool Organizer (hmmm... I guess I need pictures and a write up on that now too). The pieces were ripped to about 7/16 thick.  I stacked 5 of them on top of each other, used 4 more pieces of ripped 2x4 as uprights and then used finish nails to join them together.  This was the base of the sign.

The next part was a little bit of garage-time inspiration.  I knew I wanted to make an oval medallion that had scene representing a bear, a lake and our beloved hills, here in the Pennsylvania Wilds. So I printed off the oval (to get a consistent shape) and drew up the mountains, lake, pine tree and found a nice outline of bear and duplicated that.   I used just regular CDX (X stands for exterior grade) plywood. Nothing fancy. I wanted it to be identical on both sides. I put the grains at different angles and screwed two pieces together to achieve the identical cuts. I cut it on my scroll saw.

I then began to swap pieces with different grains and then began to sand them down.  My idea was that different stains would react differently with the grains for good contrast. I laid it out to get a feel for it and began sanding more.

Next up, I began working on the letters. Here it's important to note that signs turn out better when you use child labor. I used a thinner plywood on this that was a little nicer grade. I printed off the letters and again, screwed the two pieces together and cut them out for the sake of consistency sake on the scroll saw.  Ethan helped me sand down the letters and then to stain them.  

  I coated it with 3 coats of Spar Urethane. I had a lot of choices for coverage, including marine epoxies, but I couldn't find a good review online of any of the marine epoxies that had decent UV protection.  The picture below shows the sign out in the rain. I was trying to capture how the rain was beading up.

Here's the sign on the post.  It will have other hanging signs below it.

  So, how will the sign stand up?  Will it last?  I don't know.  In the winter snow will be piled as high as that post, so we will pull it down for winter.  But I do know I was pleased with how it turned out.   I'd say that I would probably value the sign at $150.00 if I were to make it for someone else, but I have no idea, I may be overvaluing my work!