Custom Cottage Wood Sign

CNCROi.com can make a custom cottage wood sign in any material, shape, size or font characteristics and today well make one in the shape of a fish using our industrial CNC router and some traditional wood burning for contrast.

This piece of wood is a scrap that I didn’t know quite what to make of it so I decided to pick it up and make a quick design of a custom cottage wood sign and then fasten it to our industrial ShopBot CNC router.

As I wanted this custom cottage wood sign to be dimensional, using a V-carving bit accomplishes a nice angled bevel which looks great for this application.

We have a full library of router bits both for our CNC machine and manual, but this is by far our most popular options when it comes to making cottage signs far and wide though whitewood isn’t the best wood for this application.

When it comes to custom cottage wood sign, I prefer cedar or pine than whitewood, it just has a bit more built-in contrast and is a bit harder wood with more density.

This cottage sign could have just as easily been carved using a straight 90 degree bit or a whole host of other bits, what’s nice about dimensional signs is that shadows help amplify contrast as well.

The design of a fish fit perfectly for this application, I could have made this design in the traditional fashion of engraving a fish into a rectangular board with a few words around it but our capabilities are way beyond that and if you want something really unique, CNCROi.com can make it for you.

The purpose of these demos, this custom cottage wood sign is no different, is to show you an extreme of what we can do, we can always make simpler traditional design as well as using exotic materials and processes for the ultimate custom.

For instance, if you wanted a sign like this made out of solid surface material like Corian, CNCROi.com can make that as well, here’s video proof.

As every aspect of this custom cottage wood sign can be customized, from size and shape to font type and finishing, CNCROi.com can make something that matches your desired branding, sure it’s a cottage, but a neat sign goes a long way towards making it YOURS.

Cottage signs out of solid wood look best, the full color signs you see don’t age well as generally, they are made using foam, we prefer to use wood and burning as the results last longer and can be thrown into the fire pit after a few years after we make another for you!

Although the amount of resolution we can achieve with our CNC laser is far higher than the CNC router, these signs will rarely be looked at close-up, they will be seen at a distance and as a result, extra resolution isn’t even noticed.

It’s like comparing a traditional HD television and a 4K one at a distance of 100 meters, sure, one might be brighter but the price point is dramatically different and that extra resolution won’t be noticed.

You can see that this piece of scrap wood being transformed into our custom cottage wood sign isn’t the pick of the litter, but even with the bit of darker wood, the end result is still clearly legible at a distance and close-up.

Compare that to a sign we made out of live edge basswood.

The custom cottage wood sign made out of live edge basswood costs a lot more than the whitewood (or pine / cedar) has a far higher price point using a very different technology.

The nice thing about lasers, are that the contrast is built-in while with our industrial CNC router, it needs to be added.

This wood is a bit old, as a result, it has some chipping and very rough surface density which is why the edge results aren’t as sharp as they could be, using better, fresher material, would be far better.

Again, at a distance, these natural flaws won’t be noticed and make no difference so there is no point in micro-looking at this specific custom cottage wood sign.

When it comes to weight, this custom cottage wood sign is incredibly lightweight, using denser wood would produce something heavier but not necessarily longer lasting durability speaking.

When it comes to finishing options, for this custom cottage wood sign, I didn’t do any as I wanted to allow my customers to touch and feel the wood, which you can’t do after it’s sealed.

CNCROi.com can finish this sign in a variety of paints and applications but here’s an example of a custom cottage wood sign made out of cedar.

The finishing gives it a bit more contrast on wood and a “wet look” that helps it last longer by providing a protective barrier from the outdoor environment.

It’s also a way to hide material imperfections which, let’s be honest, in wood, help add character and uniqueness to any finished product.

Once our amazing ShopBot industrial CNC router is finished producing the v-carved bevel element in this whitewood custom cottage wood sign, it’s time to go ahead and clear-out the rest of the surface.

To speed things up, we use a far larger bit that’s straight, using a bigger bit means faster material removal as the diameter is larger.

Our v-carving bit has a very fine point to it, which means it takes it a long time to clear material so only the elements needing a bevel are cleared, the rest is left to our other bit.

The big bit does quick work of all the extra material hanging around inside the sign which we want to remove, as that’s how CNCROi.com designed this sign to be.

A more traditional custom cottage wood sign would simply have the fish and words carved out of a rectangular board, but we can take things one step further!

You can now see the custom cottage wood sign fish element taking shape more clearly on the whitewood board.

When it comes to producing shadows, this also helps to make the letters stand out even more and in my opinion, make the cottage sign look even better.

We are now done clearing out all the extra material from inside our sign, the v-carving is done and the fish with text looks amazing but still needs a bit of extra finishing.

Before we proceed to the next step though, CNCROi.com will cut out the fish entirely from the board.

If you want an extremely unique custom cottage wood sign, giving it a shape makes it instantly pop!

Again, we are using our larger bit to cut this out rather than a thin bit, it removes more material due to the bigger diameter BUT it also produces a better finish to work from as this custom cottage wood sign will need some sanding!

The outline of the fish that makes-up this custom cottage wood sign is just about done, there is extra wood above and below, again, piece of scrap means I’m not the most efficient but it really doesn’t matter.

This piece of whitewood has paid for itself more than enough times and the scrap that’s left over will be burned in a fire pit, so it still has a use after this production schedule.

If you are curious, here’s what a custom cottage wood sign would look like if it was made out of pine.

And if you are wondering about resolution, check this custom medallion out using our CNC laser.

This would not be possible with our CNC router due to chips from the bit touching the wood but it gives you an idea of how different equipment CNCROi.com has in the shop produce results for a given application.

Back to our CNC routed custom cottage wood sign!

The amount of repeatability is shown very well in this video and photos, we used two different bits but you couldn’t tell results wise, that’s the power of amazing industry leading equipment!

I did the cutting in a few passes, not because I have to but just from habit and I’m in no rush, we aren’t a CNC sweat shop, we are a quality manufacturer.

If things take longer, they take longer, no problem and a custom cottage wood sign is no different!

Now the fish is completely cut out of the whiteboard, almost, as I want to finish the cutting process using another piece of equipment in the shop so I don’t have support tabs on this custom cottage wood sign.

From another angle, you can see how amazing this fish looks and the clarity of the text on an otherwise forgotten and scrap piece of whitewood.

Lifting it up against our CNC router, you can see how the contrast come out from shadows from the overhead lighting in the CNCROi.com shop.

That’s the power of v-carving!

Before we finish the cutting out of this fish-shaped custom cottage wood sign, here’s yet another look for scale, I have a typical sized thumb so the letters are roughly the size of my hand.

Now that the board has been roughly cut out, it’s time for the next step.

I like to play around with different ways of making things, it makes things interesting and there is always a lesson to be learned, CNCROi.com allows me the opportunity to live-out my childhood dreams!

And here’s the finished sign after the edges have been sanded and a little clean-up with a chisel done on the inside of this fish-shaped custom cottage wood sign.

And yet another angle, next to our Trotec Speedy 400 flexx CNC laser, sure it’s sad it wasn’t involved with this project but hey, you win some, you lose some!

Now for the contrast, originally, I was going to paint the letters out in a black or dark color sort of like I did with this sign.

But I decided to take another route and actually, stick to completely natural processes, in this case, wood burning!

You can see how unique the wood burning result is on this custom cottage wood sign, using our CNC laser to accomplish this is easy, but the results would have been consistent.

I wanted this fish to look “burned” not “painted burned” so traditional wood burning pen does that and provides a very nice permanent finish that will last at the same time.

Where paint will eventually fade, burn is burn, and here’s this custom cottage wood sign right next to our Yoda who has some very sage advice.

Looking for custom cottage wood signage in any shape, size, font or material? Contact CNCROi.com!