For a long time, David has campaigned for some sort of advance advertisement to let the neighborhood know that we would be doing something for Halloween. One year, we put out fan-blown inflatable pumpkins.
In 2005, David led the creation of a sign...
As this scratch pad demonstrates (upper left),
David had a vision from the start of what he wanted the sign to look like.
Other designs might be done in subsequent years - we particularly like the "HAUNTED" sign
(lower left).
The sheets were glued to the board using
3M Super 77
spray contact adhesive.
Don't use too much, do ony one surface, and allow to air-dry before putting together.
Remember - you have to get it off again later!
The letters were carved into the wood with a router.
For the staining and weathering, Dennis used three flavors of Minwax stains:
Cutting And Routing
David started by laying out the text on a computer and printing on
numerous sheets of paper.
The router was adjusted to go about 3/4 of the way through the top layer of the plywood.
Here's David, routing the letters, following the glued-on paper template.
Close up of the routing.
Most of the template peels off the wood easily.
A few bits of the paper template have to be scraped off.
Final carved sign.
Paint And Stain
After the lettering was routed into the wood,
Diana put black enamel paint into the recessed lettering.
She used whatever black paint we happened to have around,
oil-based RUST-OLUM flat black enamel.
After filling in the letters, the sign was sanded.
This gets rid of spatters, router "fuzz", leftover spray adhesive, etc.
| product | description |
|---|---|
| Minwax White Oak | This is a water-based stain. If you apply this generously, subsequent coats of oil-based stain don't stick very well. |
| Minwax Golden Oak | This is a light, oil-based stain. It soaks rapidly into the wood, unless you previously put a lot of water-based stain there. |
| Minwax Special Walnut | This is a dark, oil-based stain. It soaks rapidly into the wood, unless you previously put a lot of water-based stain there. |
Our reasoning was that old wood might be faded and bleached by the sun - hence the white stain. But anything that was kicking around for a long time would be dirty.
So we did a base coat of the white stain, with some smears of the darker colors.
Mounting
The sign was mounted of a "lodge pole" from
Home Depot.
This is essentially a wooden pole about 8 feet long, pressure-treated to resist pests.
We chose to drive the lodge pole into the ground using a "lodge pole driver"
(in the gardening department)
from
Home Depot.
You may also find it under the name "fence post driver"
(in the construction materials department).
The device consists of a heavy, weighted tube, with handles, closed on the end.
The driver slips over the pole and is slammed up and down to drive the pole into the ground.
See it
in action (918 K).![[movie]](../_aCommon/icon_Movie.gif){kind=icon}
[You must be over 21 to watch this movie.]
Al holds things steady while David mounts the sign.
He used simple drywall screws, long enough to go through the plywood of the sign and deep into the wood of the pole.
The more screws you use, the harder it is for somebody to steal it.
David made some special
cast plaster skulls
to decorate the top of the pole.
The more screws you use, the harder it is for somebody to steal it.
More screws on top make it hard to lift the skulls off the pole.
Final Decoration
We will use some dark red
hot-melt glue
to simulate blood drips.
Dennis adds some blood:
wait until the glue gun is good and hot;
start at the top of the drip;
push a lot of the glue through the gun,
while moving the glue gun down with the drip.
Close up of adding a drip.
David applies some blood drips to the skulls.
Thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome.
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