[The Hobbyist]

Well! Here we go, finished product. Needs to be installed in the woods I'm more than happy with them. I know they are not perfect, but neither am I! View attachment 400400

This would have been the PERFECT JOB for COLOR CORE

Joe

 

[The Hobbyist]

Jack, there are many types of wood for outdoor projects: personally, I use redwood or cypress. larger signs, such as the National Parks, I used HDO plywood (High Density Overlay) which is rare for the average consumer. MDO (Medium Density Overlay) is more common in the box stores.
if you are looking for one product (wood or paint) to last 20 years without maintenance, it's not going to happen. anything outdoors needs to be taken care of and maintained according to that project and weather conditions.
with proper eye and respirator protection, you could use pressure treated wood from Home Depot called YellaWood.
but, it too needs the appropriate priming and painting regimen. I have seen many "trail signs" that were routed only with no paint at all and allowed to weather naturally. (much easier to replace if needed).
sorry to ramble on, but, I've been making wood signs for outdoor use for over 40 years on a commercial basis.
this is totally your call as to where the trail signs go and how long do you want them to last. we're anxious to follow your projects all the way through to the final installation.
View attachment 400316

Gotta love TALENT!

"A man's got to know his limitations!" - Dirty Harry

My hand is not steady enough to paint something like this. Also, my patience level would NEVER allow me to hand paint this. I admire people who have the patience of JOB, but I want it NOW! I default to materials and processes that allow me to accelerate the outcome.

For instance, you can buy a spray rubber coating that is fairly easy to remove. So you paint a board one color, and let it dry. Now spray the mask over it, and route your sign into it. Now spray the routed pockets the second (and third, and fourth ....) colors. Remove the mask, and the sign is DONE.

Joe


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[John Smith_]

Joe - HDU sign foam definitely has its place. As does OneShot lettering enamel.
As you noted, these signs were routed by hand in another thread: Here I go hand routing signs!. So they are already done and installed.
I love working with HDU and have written a few articles on it in some of the Sign Forums.
the only drawback with routing HDU is the stupid static electricity that builds up and the dust sticks to everything. (I hand-routed my signs outside whenever possible).
in my sign shop, I built a "special room" for sandblasting HDU signs). I don't know if that's possible with the CNC outfits or not.