# Brother In-Law Retires



## OutoftheWoodwork (Oct 4, 2012)

My brother in-law retired last month from UPS, and his wife had a Retirement Party for him last weekend. Being broke, I designed a sign that I hoped he would like. What I wanted and how it came out are two different things; I wanted it to be dark brown with gold lettering, and the UPS in the "dirty yellow" that's on the logo. Well, the dirty yellow and brown came out fine; the gold lettering? Well..... it was overshadowed by the poly that was applied, and made it look like-well, not what it should have. I now have to re-create it with a different color for the lettering. Just not sure what color to use. May have to go with the dirty yellow, rather than the distinguished gold for the 30+ years he gave to the company. Pattern on the left, cut on the right. Project after colored: No picture taken :lol:


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Great work as usual Barb 

Hey ask him if he heard UPS and FedX are merging ? There going to call it " FedUp"


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Kinda like J B Hunt merging with Overnite Express -- Gonna call it "Sometime next Week"

HJ


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## Shop guy (Nov 22, 2012)

Nice design, Barb. Remember you are always your harshest critic.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

Ain't bad for a country girl. Barb I ain't seen anything bad you have carved. He is going to like it I am sure.


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## Gaffboat (Mar 11, 2012)

Another superb sign, Barb. It may not have been exactly what you were wanting but he is going to cherish it forever.


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## gjackson52 (Jul 4, 2015)

That turned out great Barb !



Gary


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Great sign Barb.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

gaffboat said:


> another superb sign, barb. It may not have been exactly what you were wanting but he is going to cherish it forever.


+1...


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

That's a nice bit of carving.


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## OutoftheWoodwork (Oct 4, 2012)

Thanks everybody. I gave him the temporary plaque, and yes, it was received well, if only for the fact that it was cut freehand router. It's the coloring that made it look bad... good idea, just didn't realize that the poly would screw up the effect I was going for.


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## Bushwhacker (Jun 16, 2009)

OutoftheWoodwork said:


> My brother in-law retired last month from UPS, and his wife had a Retirement Party for him last weekend. Being broke, I designed a sign that I hoped he would like. What I wanted and how it came out are two different things; I wanted it to be dark brown with gold lettering, and the UPS in the "dirty yellow" that's on the logo. Well, the dirty yellow and brown came out fine; the gold lettering? Well..... it was overshadowed by the poly that was applied, and made it look like-well, not what it should have. I now have to re-create it with a different color for the lettering. Just not sure what color to use. May have to go with the dirty yellow, rather than the distinguished gold for the 30+ years he gave to the company. Pattern on the left, cut on the right. Project after colored: No picture taken :lol:


When I first looked at your sign, I wondered if you did them with a templet, free hand or on a CNC.
Your last post to this thread answered that. I have only made one sign and it was just recently. I made a sign with templets for my baby sister. It is wrapped by the door ready to mail off to her. I am now sorry that I did not take pictures of it. 
My question to you Barb, is, how do you do this free hand? to you draw up what you want to route out, or simply "write it " with the router? 
Either way, you did a great job.
David


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

Barb, 

If the Gold did not bleed then you can probably paint on top of the poly with more Gold and be okay. It's worth a try.

If you plan on trying this again you might try testing different clear coats with the gold to see if you can find one that does not screw up the Gold.


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## OutoftheWoodwork (Oct 4, 2012)

Bushwhacker said:


> When I first looked at your sign, I wondered if you did them with a templet, free hand or on a CNC.
> Your last post to this thread answered that. I have only made one sign and it was just recently. I made a sign with templets for my baby sister. It is wrapped by the door ready to mail off to her. I am now sorry that I did not take pictures of it.
> My question to you Barb, is, how do you do this free hand? to you draw up what you want to route out, or simply "write it " with the router?
> Either way, you did a great job.
> David


To be told my work looks like it could have been done on a CNC is probably one of the biggest compliments I could receive, and when I'm told that, I always blush, and I'm extremely thankful for the compliment; so first, thank you, David for the compliment. Yes, I "write it" with my router, just following my lines with no guides, jigs, etc. I'm lucky to have somewhat of a steady hand, as there's no guides or templates on the market for 99% of the fonts I use for my signs. As for my patterns, I create them on my computer, flip them before printing, and use the Wintergreen Oil technique to transfer them to the wood. Since I began using this technique, though, I've changed how I brandish the pattern onto the wood; Ken found a package of what I call "monster-sized" Q-tips (I want to say) at a dollar store. Utilizing these, I haven't had to use anything else to brandish the pattern. I use the monster Q-tip to apply the Wintergreen Oil, and the same, to brandish. No idea why this particular Q-tip works, where the small ones don't, but I'm not complaining; you would swear I used a paint brush and paint and painted on the pattern. They look better than ever, and even easier to follow.

Here is the link to my technique on using Wintergreen Oil, although it's now almost three years old. I need to upload a new one with the improvements, and do a video on how I create my signs from start to finish that I've been promising. (Wish me luck :lol

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo....com/watch?v=0EQam-gymlg&amp;feature=youtu.be


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## OutoftheWoodwork (Oct 4, 2012)

MEBCWD said:


> Barb,
> 
> If the Gold did not bleed then you can probably paint on top of the poly with more Gold and be okay. It's worth a try.
> 
> If you plan on trying this again you might try testing different clear coats with the gold to see if you can find one that does not screw up the Gold.


It didn't bleed, or mess it up, Mike. it just made it look "blah." It didn't have the "bling" I wanted... like it over-shadowed it... know what I mean?


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## old coasty (Aug 15, 2014)

Great work Barb


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Looks great Barb!


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## marecat3 (Nov 30, 2010)

try applying the poly and then paint the gold over it. I do that when I want the color to stand out. Hope that works for you. Your work is always great.


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## Gene Howe (Jul 10, 2007)

Great work, Barb.
BTW, I'm really interested in your wintergreen transfer technique, but I couldn't get the link to work.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Would it help to scuff the poly where the gold will go with some 320 grit sandpaper to give the gold paint some grip?


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## OutoftheWoodwork (Oct 4, 2012)

Oliver was kind enough to post the link in another one of my posts in Show n' Tell - Let me try and link to it... Go to the 3rd page. I just clicked on it, and the link worked for me.

http://www.routerforums.com/show-n-tell/83449-finished-projects.html


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