Front Door Welcome Sign

[Steve Simon]

Made a few practice cuts today on my New Bauer 22" saw. The blades they give at purchase are not very sharp and they were pretty thick too. I have better blades on order.

Question Can I use particle board to cut out my letters if I am going to paint them anyway?

I think the saw (in my inexperienced hands) struggled cutting 3/4" pine scraps.

I just don't want them to fall apart if I leave them on the front porch.

I am making the sign board out of 5/8" thick Cedar fence pickets.

Thoughts on what type of wood for the Letters? Suggestions for making these Welcome signs?

Thanks in advance...

[preprius]

For outdoor usage, use titebond 3 glue.  

Cedar cleans up really nice when sanded to 600 grit.  So letter color will depend one the background. 

Also make it stand out from the house colors. 

As for blades ...

Pegas #3, #5,  skip should work great. 

Flying Dutchmen "FD" Polar 3, or P5.

Big blades for straight lines if you want. #3 or less for tight curves. 

I really like pegas modified geometry reverse mgtr .  It has 5 teeth pointing up and it helps reduce the bottom from splintering. 

 

 

[Dan]

I just made a sign out of cedar fence pickets. I also made the letters out of the scrap cedar. So far all is well, even after 8" of snow. I used Titebond III to glue everything together.

 

Edited Monday at 10:25 AM by Dan

[timelett]

Enjoy the hobby and the saw,lots of great advice on this site,don't judge your first projects on the blades you were supplied with. Welcome to a great hobby.

[Bill WIlson]

11 hours ago, Steve Simon said:

Question Can I use particle board to cut out my letters if I am going to paint them anyway?

 

What exactly do you mean by "particle board"?  Particle board can be the stuff that is used in Ikea furniture or construction sheathing (OSB) or MDF.  Of those, I would say MDF is probably the best choice, provided it is completely sealed, on all sides, with paint.  MDF has the smoothest surface and is easy to cut.  Just make sure to use some sort of dust collection/dust mask, because the dust from that stuff is nasty.

[JJB]

I agree with Bill. MDF would be the way to go.

[Steve Simon]

Thanks to all of you that responded!

I have a bunch of reclaimed MDF I will wait on buying thin plywood to see how the MDF letters and numbers looks after cutting them out.

[OCtoolguy]

Just remember, without pics, we won't believe anything you say. LOL. We DO love pics.

[Millwab]

On 1/12/2025 at 8:17 PM, Steve Simon said:

I am making the sign board out of 5/8" thick Cedar fence pickets.

Thoughts on what type of wood for the Letters? Suggestions for making these Welcome signs?

Thanks in advance...

Steve, why don’t you just use the cedar fence pickets for the letters too?  The cedar would hold up better outside than the MDF. 

[dgman]

Do not use mdf for outdoors projects. It will absorb moisture and crumble. There is a product called MDO. It is designed for outdoor signs.