Sign Making Kit?

[Robert Arrowood]

I've been thinking about getting a sign making kit. Any suggestions as to the best at a cheap price? Thanks for any input.

[lwhughes149]

I had a old friend try to sell my his new sign making kit just last saturday. He wants 1,600.00 for it. It is new. It comes with computer and everything. The man is in his 80's and decided once he got it that it was too complicated for him. Let me know if this is anything you would like to check into and I will give you his phone number. BTY, two of my major woodworking tools came from him. Lorraine

[DaveO]

Robert, I have this set up. TurnLock SignPro, from Woodcraft. It works as well as you could expect for the cost. It's not to expensive, around $55, IIRC. It does a good job of guiding the router to make letters and is very easy to set up. My only complaint is the letter templates are plastic, I would have preferred some sort of metal, and there is often not enough of any particular letter to make the word that you need.



Linky: http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=20141

I like to paint the interior of the letters with acrylic paint and then finish sanding the surface to remove any errant paint. It makes a nice clean look.
Here's a sign that I made for my folks camper using it-



HTH, Dave:-)

[jeeves]

Robert I have a Kimball system I paid 1800.00 a few years ago.I just never used it much. It is a great system come with a router and a vac. very simple to use I want 775.00 for it Dwight

[Travis Porter]

I got one from Sears that I think is rebranded from Miller. It looks almost exactly like DaveO's. I think it was around $50. Two sizes of letters and numbers, but I will say not enough vowels. Not a bad set up overall.

[LeftyTom]

I second DaveO's idea. Pay attention to what templates come with it. There is another Turnlok kit I've seen in catalogs, but the descriptino doe not sat that kit comes with templates for vertical signs (numbers down the side of mailbox post, for instance).

A kit like DaveO's is on my Christmas list

[Robert Arrowood]

The kit that DaveO has is more on the lines for me. Man I would have to sell a ton of signs to pay for a cnc. As much as I would love to have something like that. If I can't pay out of pocket I can't get it.:crybaby2:But I do have some folks asking about sign's a good bit.I'll keep in mind to check for metal templets. Thanks for all the input. Man you can't beat this group of wood workers.

[CarlaG]

Just a suggestion regarding metal letter templates...the company Allen used to work for (Flanders CSC in Washington, NC) had a laser to cut out their metal. It could cut out logos, letters, anything. Maybe look at your local welding or fabrication shops to see if they have that type of set-up that can cut out templates.

[Splinter]

Print your letters using a computer, stick them to your wood and free hand the letters with your router. Cost $0.

[Travis Porter]

Dolan, how hard is it to do freehand? I thought about that, but worried about "staying in the lines".

[childe]

There's actually quite a bit one can do with a scroll saw, especially if you just want to make raised lettering and apply them to sign.

Chris

[Splinter]

Dolan, how hard is it to do freehand? I thought about that, but worried about "staying in the lines".

Travis, It is not difficult. But I,m not saying the letter edges will be "ruler" straight but you have so much more freedom with fonts and format doing the signs freehand. I use a 1/4" trim router with a 9" or 12" clear base that I made (I can send you the instructions for making the base). I bought a 1/4" rounter from HF and another one from Homier ( http://www.homier.com/detail.asp?Ses...cat=&sku=02735 ). The HF and Homier are identical routers except for the color.

Here is a sign I made recently. There are a couple of raised letter signs in my MISC photo gallery also.