Metal Looking Painted MDF Signage
Metal looking painted MDF signage is a great workaround from the costs of using real metal for your interior signage, it does have limitations that should be kept first of mind though.
The biggest drawback from using painted MDF signage to look like metal over the real stuff is durability, if this falls from the wall, it will get broken while real metal will break the floor it falls onto.
The major advantage of painted MDF signage over the real stuff is cost, MDF is available plentifully, it’s very cheap material by comparison as a result.
Regardless of the paint color used, MDF always looks great!
The other nice thing about MDF is that it’s an easy to work with material, it cuts great, can be easily refined using sand paper and weighs not very much compared to the metal alternatives.
For this job specifically, I used a piece of scrap quarter inch 6 mm thick MDF to make my interior painted MDF signage, I wanted to make it look like metal without the cost of, in this case, using real aluminium or stainless steel equivalents.
Of course, if you prefer to have wall signage using real wood, CNCROi.com can make that too.
All I did at CNCROi.com was scale-up all my letters as big as possible over the piece of scrap MDF I was going to use for this project, as a result, my only limitation was surface area but if you wanted individual letters at a dramatically larger size, that’s no problem, each letter could have been 4 x 8 ft if wanted and even bigger if we spliced them.
I went with thicker quarter inch MDF over an eighth inch because I wanted a bit more shadows created when I affixed this wall signage onto the wall, this was going to provide additional contrast to the shiny painted MDF signage surface that looked like metal.
There are lots of options when it comes to producing custom painted signage, with us, you aren’t stuck to any particular design, style or material.
As you can see, the letters are all sharp, and CNCROi.com can work off any font, size, design or material so whatever you want, we can make it for you to enjoy for both interior and exterior signage requirements.
The reason we didn’t use our CNC laser to produce this signage was it’s more cost effective to use our CNC router and it’s a lot faster, there was also no real loss in resolution or precision at this size.
Each technology has their costs and benefits, although CNCROi.com has it’s own equipment so the costs to ourselves are nothing but our own time, I still out of habit try to produce the best given the time and material allocations we have between customer jobs.
CNCROi.com can also make dimensional signage, so if you are looking for something extra unique, we can make it too.
MDF, like real mild steel, both paint fantastic, so if you wanted as a go-between budget wise the look of far more expensive aluminium or stainless steel without the hit to your wallet, metal spray paint on either material would be totally acceptable.
These letters are all jumbled in orientation and order to use the most of the scrap material, no point in wasting material that could be put to good use such as painted MDF signage!
If you are looking for something that’s very high visibility, we can make that too.
Now that CNCROi.com‘s CNC router is finished cutting out the quarter inch 6 mm MDF, it’s time to begin the painting process, in this case, I used a brush as it was rough outside and I don’t like using spray paint indoors due to the fumes.
the first step before painting is cleaning-up the MDF and then separating the good from the scrap material, I don’t want to accidentally forget to paint a letter or paint scrap instead.
When it comes to custom wall plaques or more traditional wall signage, CNCROi.com has you covered.
You can already see the contrast created by just a quick layer of paint on painted MDF signage, it sorta looks like metal, working with metal day in and out, I can immediately tell this is not metal, but for the general public, I think they’d think it was metal if you told them so.
Here’s the new home of CNCROi.com‘s custom painted MDF signage, it looks great and I leveled it by eye which makes it all the more impressive!
Nothing can fake the beauty and durability of real metal wall signage.
Looking at another angle, you can see originally I was going to drill each letter into the wall, hence pilot holes, then I decided to just staple it, it’s faster and I was getting tired, it did a great job holding it there!
If you are looking for custom signage, metal, plastic, wood or whatever – shipped right to your door – contact CNCROi.com right now!