ANOTHER Freehand Routed Sign

JMLangford · Dec 18, 2023

Well guys, I'm at it again :lol:

making another freehand routed sign.....this time it's a surprise Christmas present for a friend of ours and his family.

Mike is his name and his shop has been converted into a pickin'-n-grinnin' hangout.

Mike’s Music Barn | 🎸🪕Mike’s Music Barn 🎻🎤 | Facebook

🎸🪕Mike’s Music Barn 🎻🎤 My dad, Mike, has always wanted to turn his barn into a venue for music players! A Pickin and Grinnin, Jamin Place for the community to show off their talents from playin to...

www.facebook.com

His daughter Michelle, trully loved the sign I made my wife for her quilts....So, I'm going to surprise them with a sign for the music barn.
I plan to have it finished by Thursday Dec. 21st (the last time we get together to make music before Christmas)

Here I'm getting started laying out the letters....

Finished routing the letters....I also routed the border with a Roman Ogee bit to dress it up.

I brushed on a coat of Tung oil the keep the paint from bleeding onto the top when painting the letters.

Letters and trim all painted....(more about the color choice later)

.

JMLangford · Dec 18, 2023

With all the letters done I wanted/needed something on the blank spaces on either side of "MIKE's"

I originally wanted to do something like this flowing note arrangement on both sides, but I couldn't get my printer to get the right proportions to trace it on with carbon paper....PLUS...It was way more of an involved design than my poor wobbly, inexperienced hands could rout out....

....So, I opted to freehand draw a treble clef and a few notes (a whole lot easier to draw and rout - note: the cardboard oval I cut out and traced so all the notes would be the same size)

I dropped the single note down a bit before I routed it.

This was the most nerve-racking part of the whole sign. :scared:

All routed and painted....I just need to drill some mounting holes and spray it with a few coats of spar-varnish.
I want to place it outside above the entrance door of the barn, but I'll let Michelle decide where to mount it.

Stay Tuned....

Bears Fan · Dec 18, 2023

Love the sign and the story behind it. That's a great tip on putting tung oil down before painting to keep the paint from bleeding over :thumbup:

I'm sure your friend Mike will love the sign

Merry Christmas

JMLangford · Dec 18, 2023

I'm going to take some more pictures Thursday and hopefully will know where it will be mounted. :thumbup:

About the color choices: When I got the idea to make the sign, I envisioned it being hung outside above the entrance.
Looking and the barn on the approach, I wanted the sign to blend in with the trim on the barn.
But, how was I going to match that color without tipping them off?? :dunno:

.....Well one night after music, I casually told Michelle that I really like the color of the trim on the barn, and that I had a chair in my shop I was working on and that it would look good and match the decor colors of MY music room.....She said it was a combination of a bunch of different color, but she had the old can that they saved to match it in the future.
I picked up the (empty) can about 2 week ago and went to Lowe's and had a quart mixed and they matched it perfectly!!
Last Thursday I told Michelle that after seeing the color back at my house, I didn't like the match and it just didn't look like I thought it would, so I would bring back her can this Thursday.....
As for the red...I wanted something to stand out from the trim color!

Jeff95TA · Dec 18, 2023

I love how the letters are slightly imperfect but still incredibly neat. Nice job!

imagineer · Dec 18, 2023

Impressive. Any tips or tricks for keeping the router from wanting to migrate on it's own?
Do you use anything special for the base of the router?

JMLangford · Dec 18, 2023

imagineer said:
Impressive. Any tips or tricks for keeping the router from wanting to migrate on it's own?
Do you use anything special for the base of the router?

So far the 2 signs I've made have been in soft woods (Cedar & Pine) If you go fairly slow (and don't take to deep of cut) I'm able to keep it tracking where I want it to go....The base I made out of plexiglass with the 2 handles help control it also.
If you can't or don't want to make your own base, then Eric Rhoten sells them on his website for different brands of routers. (the guy I referenced in my first sign post)

I get nervous when making long straight line passes, but I've found that starting at the top of a line and pulling the router toward you instead of pushing helps a lot.
I guess the main thing is to remain calm and not get caught up in the fast spinning noise of the router causing you to feel rushed...

Lighting is important too!! (especially if you have old eyes like mine :eyecrazy:

)
Being able to see how close to the line you are, makes it easier to smoothly follow that line.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I hope that helps....Thanks for asking

Check out some of Eric Rhoten's YouTube videos....he has taught his technique for many years....and he learned from his Father who started it in 1970.

https://www.youtube.com/@oldave100/videos

gearhead1 · Dec 19, 2023

Nice work!

Where did you get the letters?

manwithtools · Dec 19, 2023

Very nice work! You might want to look at a Shaper Origin. Shaper Origin

It will make your sign creation so much easier! You might need to learn a little computer skills, but the reward could be huge!

JMLangford · Dec 19, 2023

gearhead1 said:
Nice work!

Where did you get the letters?

I got the chipboard letters years ago at Hobby Lobby, but they have since been discontinued :rolleyes2

manwithtools said:
Very nice work! You might want to look at a Shaper Origin. Shaper Origin

It will make your sign creation so much easier! You might need to learn a little computer skills, but the reward could be huge!

That product looks very interesting, but a little too high-tech for this old dog....Thanks for the link

JMLangford · Dec 24, 2023

Well folks, time to finish up this sign project....

I sprayed 4 or 5 good coats of spar varnish on over a course of 3 days - now I just need to drill the holes for mounting

Here it is Thursday night and this is the outside view of Mike's Music Barn....

My wife and I got there early, and Mike was already sitting in the barn listening to CD's....So, after I said "Hello" I put a santa hat on him :thumbup:

The crowd (players) started to show up....

We played for about 40 min. or so and then we stopped to take a break for the "finger food" that was brought, that's when I surprised Mike and his daughter Michelle with the sign....

Fast forward to today (Christmas Eve) I came out and installed the sign over the entrance door of the barn....Mike came out for a picture and the smile on his face tells me he likes it!! :rocker:

I'm happy with it myself.....

.

JMLangford · Dec 24, 2023

Here are some parting pics of the sign....

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.....And if you'd like, head on over to Mike's Music Barn Facebook page (links in the first post of this thread) and show him some Christmas love if you would - Thanks

.

JMLangford · Saturday at 10:59 PM

* * * UPDATE * * *
On May 5th, 2025 Mike of Mike's Music Barn, passed away at 89 years old.
Mike's daughter Michelle (who was instrumental in making the music barn a reality) decided she wanted the barn to continue, to honor her father and keep his dream alive.

So, fast forward, Michelle and her husband Eric, moved into the main home at the start of 2026 and made improvements to the property and repainted the house and the music barn.

The original color was brown with blue/green trim.....the new color is grey with brick red trim which meant that the sign needed to be repainted.

I hung the sign on Christmas eve 2023 and took it down for the repaint in April 2026....roughly 2 and a half years later (boy, time flies) and the sign has held up pretty good with very little wear showing.

The paint around the border was hard as a rock and would have taken forever to sand it (plus the profile would be impossible by hand) so, I just sanded the bottom edge....

And, installed the Roman Ogee bit in my router....

And just like that...No sanding needed.... :thumbup:

Nice clean border ready for the new color....

So, the original plan was to repaint the border and the words "Music" and "Barn" in the new brick red color....but once I got the word "Music" painted, I came up with the idea of leaving the word "Barn" the original blue/green (kinda like the old vs new) so I called Michelle and she loved the idea so.......