Introduction: How to Make Man Cave Signs

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About: Retired, doing art work now. Great. Have the time and the money to spend doing what I want to do.

Every guy needs man cave signs don't they? I've seen the metal printed ones, some of which go for pretty hefty prices! I wondered how effective painted signs, on wood, wood look. Hence this instructable. Finally got around to giving it a shot. Signs look good and from just a little distance, they are indistinguishable from the original signs. These would brighten up any "cave", or could be used on outside walls, fences, in garages, shops, or if you wanted tables for a theme in a game room, for example, it would be easy to get a base and make the table.

Step 1: Tools and Materials Used

Basic craft and shop tools are used, the more the better! I used a band saw and jig saw to cut the rounds, but I think you can buy them already cut at the depot or similar outlets. My signs ranged from 22 to 29 inches in diameter, depending on my material. I had several pieces of used plywood, which when trimmed and cleaned up served my purpose.

Step 2: Cut Out Round Shapes Needed

To mark my round shapes, I just used a short stick with holes drilled in it at various divisions. A hole in the end is used to attach it to the piece with a nail driven through the hole. This pivots in a perfect circle so makes scribing the circles extremely easy.

Step 3: Find Source Images

This can be done in any order, of course. Images can be found on the internet, for example, or you could go takes photos of existing signs.

Step 4: Layout Design on the Wood Piece

I used two methods to do my layouts. First, I actually used the grid method to draw the complete sign. Way too much effort, then I remembered the poster companies online. You can actually upload your source image, make a poster of varying sizes, download and print...FREE! Much effort and time is saved by doing it the second method.

Step 5: Cut Masking Tape to Reveal Primed Surface

After you have drawn your sign, masking tape is used to outline forms. You can apply tape all over an area, then use your poster pattern that has been made into a stencil to do the same thing. After masking/drawing, designs, items, and lettering is cut out with a craft knife or box cutter knife.

Step 6: Paint Where Indicated

At this point, you can fill in all areas with paint. I used a primer coat on some of the letters as they were going onto a black background. Even then, sometimes two coats of acrylic latex paint was needed for good coverage.

Step 7: Do Next Stages of Taping and Painting

Follow through with all designs and all signs!

Step 8: Do Final Painting, Touchups, and So On

Invariable, there will be minor touching up to do, but that only takes a few minutes.

Step 9: My Last Sign, Start to Finish

The photos pretty much tell the story. Starting with a pattern, an outline is drawn, masked off, trimmed to shape and then painted. It was done in sections, i.e., the bottom was done first, then I concentrated on the top. This completed my four sign goal!

Step 10: Four Completed Signs.

This completes this instructable. Would appreciate feed back, critiques, criticisms, etc. Using these methods, I can see where you can make just about any sign you wanted, including traffic signs, NBA, NFL, MLB, and other sport venues logos, and so on and so forth.

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