How to Make a Raised Letter on Sheet Metal

This is kind of a cool project to do if you'd like to customize a panel of some kind.

I'm just using this as a wall decoration for my garage but you could also draw more complex drawings and do some pretty ornate things. I've seen it done really well with flames.

I made it at TechShop.

Step 1: Setup Your Machine

For this, we'll use the rotary machine.

There's a special attachment that will let us do raised letters. You can see it in the picture above. Set it up like so.

Step 2: Prepare Your Material

I used soapstone to freehand draw the letter "S". You can get soapstone at Harbor Freight or the tools section (near welding equipment) of Lowe's. It makes it easy to see the letter on the sheet metal and is also easy to clean away when done.

Step 3: Raise the Letter

Make sure to use a scrap piece to establish the orientation of the raised side. The rotary attachments can be reversed so the sheet metal can fit.

Just remember if you reverse the attachment you should double check which direction will be raised.

Just crank the handle and spin the wheels. Not much to using this machine.

Step 4: The End

And there you have it.

You now have a raised letter. Now you can paint or powdercoat it for an even greater effect.