Made sign, ruined it on last letter

[Duane Bledsoe]

Well, I wanted to piddle around in the shop some today, had no project to do so I thought I'd try out the sign making kit I got for Christmas LAST YEAR. I had never tried it at all until now so I shouldn't feel that bad about this, but anyway, I thought I'd make a sign on a 2x8 I had here saying PAPAW'S WORKSHOP. I sanded the board down and was very satisfied with how it looked, laid out the lettering, routed it all out, and on the very last letter the stencil slipped and ruined the whole thing. I had the frame taped with double sided tape and also clamped down. But the letters themselves slipped inside the frame. I lived and learned, and will double check screw tightness next time for sure. Maybe it vibrated loose?? I don't know. That was a lot of letters for a beginner sign maker to attempt I think. There's no way to save the sign either, the P is horribly mangled. It was just for me, so it's not like I destroyed something that needed to be completed for someone else. Still I feel bad about it.

[Jim Marshall]

Why not mortise the mistake out and inlay a new piece of wood and give it another try?

[Myk Rian]

Or use wood filler to fix, and re-rout.

[Rod Sheridan]

Well of course it was the last letter, what else would you expect??????????:D

Regards, Rod

[Greg Peterson]

I was nowhere near you. Wasn't even in the same zip code. I have alibis to back me up. You can't stick this one on me. Not this time.

[Duane Bledsoe]

Well, I think any fix I come up with for it would show. I wanted to stain it and hang it up in the shop, have it look sort of rugged, but not that rugged! It's not a big thing, I can get another board fairly cheap and make it again. I mostly wanted to try out the sign making kit and thought I'd make something for me since I make most things for other people. Next time I'll have more of an idea what to do right off the bat and I won't be trying to learn how it works while making something I don't want ruined.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

So for your next sign just make "workshop". Cut up the first sign and put this one on the wall under Papaw's
And you'll have a nice set of signs.

[Duane Bledsoe]

I thought about that, and I may do that to save the work. That is a good idea.

[Anthony Whitesell]

No pictures. Never happened.

[Duane Bledsoe]

I knew someone would say that, LOL, and how I wish that were true! :)

[glenn bradley]

"Made sign, ruined it on last letter"

BTDT, it is frustrating but, makes for good practice. I had one sign where I botched a capital "A". I kept going for practice and botched the second capital "A" as well. This showed me a flaw in my technique; capital "A"'s are not a problem anymore . . . sliver lining anybody?

[Jim Rimmer]

I would hang it as is. Then people wouldn't ask you to make things for them and you can work on your own projects. :D Seriously though, hang it as is just for fun.

[Wayne Hendrix]

I would hang it as is. Then people wouldn't ask you to make things for them and you can work on your own projects. :D Seriously though, hang it as is just for fun.

I was thinking the same thing but use a sharpie or a carving tool to add "#!@$" right next to the last "p"

[Chris Tsutsui]

I too think it would be fun to keep the mistake because pobody's nerfect.

[Neil Brooks]

BTDT.

Mistakes RARELY happen on the first cut.

I think there's two camps of people: patch and fix, and ... I can't LIVE with this --> do over.

Sadly, I tend to be in the second group, giving me LOTS of time to beat myself up for the mistake :)

PS: I saw Greg Peterson ... lurking about ... IN your area ... when it happened. Don't believe him :D

[Kevin Gregoire]

you must have graduated from the Kevin Gregoire School of Hard Knocks!

[Greg Hines, MD]

I bought the Rockler set of lettering templates a couple of years ago for a project, and you just tape them to the wood, and use a router with a stubby collar to guide in the templates. It worked out great, the biggest problem being for some of my signs, I had to use other letters as spacers, but that was no big deal. I had no trouble with making a half dozen little signs for a Woodbadge ticket.

[Moses Yoder]

You could easily use Bondo to fill in the botch, let dry and re-rout, then paint instead of stain.

[Myk Rian]

Try it without the sign kit. I have better luck doing them freehand.
My sign kit has sat on the shelf since I used it, once.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

What fun would it be if you made a mistake on the first letter and didn't waste all that time?
I also vote for patching and say that you planned that, to make it look like it came from a "real" workshop and not some CAD/CAM factory. As mebtioned, ponbody's perfekt.

[Mike Davis NC]

Old quilt makers always put one mistake on purpose in every quilt to show their humbleness. No human goes without mistakes.

I had to start over on a simple box last night. After hand cutting 16 dovetails, I assembled the box and found that one whole corner was cut backwards.

Went to sleep, woke up early, started over and trying to do an overall better job. Had some friends over for lunch today or else I would be finished.

Always another day to work...

Oh Yeah, I would hang the sign on my shop wall inside where I could see it to remind me to slow down and double check everything.

[Duane Bledsoe]

Some great ideas here for sure. I'm definitely in the "I can't live with this" camp. Been that way my whole life. I'll just have to start over on it. It won't take that long really, and I'll enjoy it a whole lot more once it's finished and looks like I want it to.

[Floyd Mah]

Why not cut out each letter, like blocks, and reset into another frame. Resaw the piece that has the bad letter, recut the letter. In that way, the grain would match. You would have all the letters and a different look to the sign. Gutenberg started this way.

[David Giles]

Duane, found the answer to your problem. One of my kids gave me this Christmas gift.
217170

[Kevin Gregoire]

nice job david, i seen that pattern before and its a great conversation piece!
i might have to give it a try out of some pine i have.

[Mike Cruz]

David, I LOVE that.

Duane, the good news is that since there are no pics, it never happened. See how easy that was to solve?

[Bill White]

I too think it would be fun to keep the mistake because pobody's nerfect.
Chris, you are not well. Now I've got to clean off my keyboard after I spewed my coffee while laughing.
That statement is goin' up in my shop right now.
Bill