Inexpensive Lighted Circus Themed Sign
Introduction: Inexpensive Lighted Circus Themed Sign
This is a tutorial on how to create a great looking inexpensive lighted sign. Mine is circus themed to coincide with a clown themed Halloween display but the basic techniques can be applied to any theme or design. The material I selected for my sign are inexpensive and somewhat durable but higher quality/more durable materials can be used depending on you skill level. The reason I used the materials that I did was because I was trying to do it a cheap as possible and I only needed it for one occasion.
I can't recommend enough for you to sit down and take the time to plan your sign out. The better planned out your sign is the more professional it will look.
Step 1: Supplies/tools
* Materials:
* lightweight 1/8th inch plywood
* 12 volt LED strip lights
* 1"x2" pine wood (length depending on your needs, more on that later)
* Screws
* Adhesive
* paint
* styrofoam sheet
* sandpaper
* Tools: soldering iron
* hot wire cutter or sharp utility knife
* scroll saw or jigsaw
* drill
* table saw
* soldering iron
* hot glue gun
* wire cutter/stripper
* square
Step 2: Design
I am no artist, I can fudge my way through most things without things looking too terribly amateur but that's about it. With that in mind the circus style font was perfect for my design. The letters follow pretty specific geometric patterns that make replicating them pretty easy. their design also makes aligning them easier.
Step 3: Creating You Cut Out Letters
Once I figured out what size I wanted my letters to be, I measured and cut a strip of plywood as wide as the height of the letters. I then took that strip and cut it in to individual panels the width of the letters. All of my letters were of the same width (no "M"s or "W"s), so with my sign being 8 letters I cut 8 identical panels. I discretely wrote each letter on each panel. Lay all of these panels out together and confirm that their size and spacing conforms to your design. It is easy to make adjustments to the overall size, if they're too big, at this stage.
Using a pencil, I lightly marked some measurements to help me draw the letters on the panels. 644
I recommend only lightly drawing your guidelines out at first so that if you need to edit them, the lines you've already drawn will be easy to erase. Once you've drawn all your letters and decided that your satisfied with them you can go back over them a little darker, These will be the lines we'll follow when cutting out the numbers so keeping them clean and neat will help you when using the saw.
I used the rounded base of a bottle I found, to duplicate the same curve that is inherent to the font's design. I also used a bottle that had an outside radius that matched the inside curve of the "O". These shortcuts helped keep the letter contours uniform.
Step 4: Cutting Out the Letters
The ideal tool for this is the scroll saw, if your letters have a lot of interior corners or sharp turns it will require the right blade. If your using a jigsaw make sure you get a blade that leaves a clean edge on plywood. The wrong blade will splinter the wood.
To cut the interior of a letter like an "R", "A", or "O" you need to drill a hole to start your cuts. Drill a hole that's just slightly wider than your blade, then you can insert your blade and make your interior cut. Now that your letters are all cut out lay them out and adjust their position in relation to each other and confirm everything lines up as planned. The plywood I used left little strands at the cut edge so I trimmed them off with a utility knife and lightly sanded the edges.
Step 5: Prepping Your Letters for Mounting
I wanted to letters to be offset from the sign so that I could put lights behind them to give them a light silhouette effect. I ripped the 1"x2"s in half so that I had 2 1" strips. The amount of space the letters stand off is a matter of personal preference. On my sign the lights are visible at some extreme angles had I made the space between the backing and the letters smaller the lights would have been hidden better.
I chose to cut pieces of the strips that were about 2/3rd the total height of the letters (for example: if my letters were 9" tall I cut a 6" strip for it). This is also a matter of personal preference keep in mind the longer the length of the strip the more LED strip you are likely to use. 276