Fabricating the Heritage Family Dentistry signs

Recently, a new company bought a dentist’s office whose sign I had done several years ago. They were changing the name and wanted to replace the sign face on the existing mounting. The sign is in a rural agricultural town, so it was meant to have a bit of a rustic look. It’s not something you’d see in an upscale urban area.

It also had to be practical to produce, so sandblasting was an easy choice. There were two oval signs involved—a 30-in.-by-50-in. HDU sign to go on the freestanding mounting and a 20-in.-by-36-in. wood sign for next to the entry.

For the larger sign, I sandwiched a core of 1-in. PVC board between two layers of 15-lb. HDU board. I left an opening about 30-in. wide in the bottom to accept the mounting.

The background was sandblasted using two different textures—the typical pebble finish and a faux woodgrain texture—to add a little extra interest. The letters were cut from 1-in. HDU board. I cut a four-piece border from 1-in. black PVC board.

I drilled the back of the letters and border, then screwed in Gemini aluminum studs. I cut the studs off about ¾-in. long then pressed the graphics down on the HDU to mark the locations of the studs, then drilled oversized holes in the HDU. A squirt of Lord Adhesive’s 7542 polyurethane adhesive went in each hole, then the letters and border sections were pushed into position.

A raised border really adds a lot to a sign—even a flat sign. It adds depth and creates a little interest. It’s not that hard to do, either.

The tree graphic was router-cut from two layers of ¾-in. 30-lb. HDU—a base layer for the trunk and canopy and another one of just the canopy—then hand carved. I cut the shape on the router in two sizes, since I would be using it on both of the signs. The two layers were bonded together with Gorilla Glue. After carving and painting, the trees were bonded to the sign faces with silicone caulk.

The 36-in. wide wood sign that would go on the wall next to the front door was sandblasted Western Red Cedar. It has a backer of 1-in. black PVC board that extends around the sign panel to be a border. Both signs were finished completely with Ronan Aquacote water-based sign enamel in standard colors and Copper Metallic.

I like to simplify the installation of the sign so that it goes quickly and smoothly on site. One easy way to do this with a monument sign is to make components that slide together, which is what I did on this project. The mounting was already in place, so to install it, I just slid the sign face down over the posts and put a few screws into the posts to secure it.

If I were making the face for the freestanding sign over, I would probably use thinner material for the cutout letters. The letter style is a condensed typeface and in certain light, the thick letters throw shadows that make the lettering a little harder to read. These were cut from 1-in. PVC board, but using ½-in. material would have resulted in smaller shadows and better legibility. Always learning!

Dayna Reed lives in Hood River, Oregon. He is author of two DVDs, 3D Signs Made Easy and More Super Cool 3D Signs, are available at SignCraft.com. Save $20 when you buy both.

The layers of HDU were bonded with Gorilla Glue.

A slot was left in the bottom of the sign to accept the mounting.

The HDU tree panels were cut from two layers of ¾-in. HDU board and bonded with Gorilla Glue.

The tree graphics were finished with Ronan Aquacote water-based sign enamel.

Here the components are positioned on the HDU panel after sandblasting. The stencil hasn’t been removed yet.

Once the HDU panel was painted, the black PVC border was bonded to it with Lord Adhesive 7542.

Now on to the smaller wood sign. The panel was laminated from two planks of 2×12 Western Red Cedar.

The backer for the wood panel was cut from 1-in. black PVC and extends about 1 1/2-in. on all sides as a border.

The wood sign was bonded to the PVC backer with silicone adhesive caulk.

Here’s the completed wood sign after sandblasting, finishing and assembly.

The HDU sign face was installed in minutes. I removed the old sign face by taking out a few screws, then slid the new face down over the mounting and put a few screws in from the back to secure it to the wood mounting.

The wood sign was installed on the wood wall next to the door with screws.