BAR SIGNS

exnailpounder · Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:06 pm

My buddy owns a bar with a rustic western motif so he asked me to build him 2 signs for his front and back doors. 400 series stainless, hand cut and aged and airbrushed. I had letters cut that were really nice and he told me they weren't rustic enough so I hand cut these. This whole project is copied directly off his menus. There's good money in this

Sorry for the crappy lighting and crap-cam pics.

jroark · Fri Sep 11, 2015 2:06 pm

Sweet!!

MosquitoMoto · Fri Sep 11, 2015 5:57 pm

Very nice indeed.

Hey exnail, when you mark your material for cutting, what are you using? Pen? Chalk? Scribe? Starting on some plasma cutting myself and always struggle to see my mark up once I light the torch up.

Kym

exnailpounder · Fri Sep 11, 2015 8:15 pm

MosquitoMoto wrote:Very nice indeed.

Hey exnail, when you mark your material for cutting, what are you using? Pen? Chalk? Scribe? Starting on some plasma cutting myself and always struggle to see my mark up once I light the torch up.

Kym

Kym, I use Hi-temp Sharpies for off hand cuts.

MosquitoMoto · Sat Sep 12, 2015 2:08 am

Cool - thanks for the info, exnail.

Kym

motox · Sat Sep 12, 2015 9:50 am

nice hand work, who needs a CNC.....
craig

exnailpounder · Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:23 am

motox wrote:nice hand work, who needs a CNC.....
craig

Thank God he wanted rustic

I was wishing I had a CNC because this was a PITA. Lots of grinding and carbide Christmas trees on these babies. They actually came out better than the pics suggest but not good enough for me but my friend loved 'em so I guess its all good.

motox · Sun Sep 13, 2015 7:52 am

jeff
customer is always right....lol
craig

Boomer63 · Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:17 am

Very nice work! I used to LOVE doing custom work like this! One trick I picked up for a real 'rustic' look when cutting with oxy/fuel, is to find the most clogged tip you have, then cut out your letters/shapes/etc using that. It leaves a lot of slag, but can look - oh I dunno! - The word I heard was "industrial".

Another thing: I used to make mail box posts (final costs $2,000 and UP!!) and other decorative items that were to simulate trees, etc. To get the 'bark' look, I would turn the gas off on the MIG unit and run stringers. An old trick, I know, but very effective! Another thing, whenever I had to duplicate nature, was to take a walk through the woods and find branches, etc. that had the 'look' that I wanted. Then I would bring them back to the shop, make a stand for them, and duplicate in round tube what I was looking at. Since I don't have any artistic tendencies and no eye for 'good taste' it helped my end products look very life like and real.
Gary