Veteran Signs

My good friend "Doc" Whatley approached me with the idea of making some signs for a couple families that really go out of their way to host an annual Memorial Day party in southern Oregon. I didn't really have time to do it, but I said yes anyway, because I thought it would be a cool idea. Here's the final product of one of the signs. I actually added several coats of exterior grade finish after this. 

Because of time constraints, I had to take them with me to work and apply finish on a break! I did another coat at 10pm, one at 12am, then one at 4am. (I slept through my alarm, otherwise I would have got an extra at 2 am.)

A couple construction pics:

As with a lot of my projects, I get in a bind and don't take time for photos, or just plain forget. With my new sign kit, I fired up the router and went to work. This is the FIRST letter I did- catastrophic blowout! The router turned the corner and cut right on through the "J". 

The plastic guide bushing that rides in the lettering jig heated up, melting from the friction of the router bit not being completely centered. With this critical piece distorted, the router no longer sat correctly in the letter, and just kept on going. AAUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Here was my solution: I routed out a rectangle right up into the "J", then cut a scrap of pine to fit and glued 'er in. 

Here's a closeup of the fixed and finished area. I played with the stain a bit to make the different grain blend in a little better. The result is you have to look pretty close to see the patchwork. Pretty happy with myself on the fix!

I can't remember if it was Doc or me that came up with the idea for insetting the "Challenge Coins" in the sign, but it really turned out to be a nice touch. Since the James' are a multi-service family, the coin on the left is Army, on the right Marines. 

In the end, I made 2 signs. Somehow, I don't have any pictures of the other one. It's essentially the same though, just a different name. For something i thought would only take a few hours, it sure took a lot of work to get these done. Whew!