Lettering for toolbox (birch ply)

[spiderlane]

Hi All,

Looking for a little inspiration. I'm making my son his first toolbox for Christmas (for his first set of tools which various people will buy him) out of birch ply. I want to put his initials on it in a reasonably discreet way but can't really think of the best way of doing it. Brass letters seem a bit OOT for what will be a functional/workmanlike design but I want something a bit neater than free handing with a sharpie!

All ideas welcome.

Cheers
Mark

 

[bugbear]

Hi All,

Looking for a little inspiration. I'm making my son his first toolbox for Christmas (for his first set of tools which various people will buy him) out of birch ply. I want to put his initials on it in a reasonably discreet way but can't really think of the best way of doing it. Brass letters seem a bit OOT for what will be a functional/workmanlike design but I want something a bit neater than free handing with a sharpie!

All ideas welcome.

Cheers
Mark

Stencil?

There are several different alphabets available out there.

BugBear

 

[hansonread]

Buy a sheet of Letraset, with a good coat of varnish over the top. used this same technique to great effect many a time.

 

[spiderlane]

Oh yes, the stencil idea is cool - what sort of paint I wonder? Would kids paint work?

Letraset and varnish could work too - what sort of varnish would you recommend?


Thanks, chaps - just the sort of ideas I was after.

Cheers
Mark

 

[bugbear]

Oh yes, the stencil idea is cool - what sort of paint I wonder? Would kids paint work?

The main requirments on the paint are to be suitable for birch ply and kids!

It also needs to be dry enough not to run under the sheet when you stencil, but this
can be controlled by careful loading of the brush.

BugBear

 

[CHJ]

One technique that I've used to good effect in the past is to use self adhesive lettering Similar to these Then random edge overspray or brush paint, then peel off lettering leaving negative image.

 

[xy mosian]

First job for an aspiring woody perhaps?

xy

 

[Mar_mite]

What about branding the letters on? That could be fun.

 

[BigShot]

I was just about to suggest branding too.

That or some other sort of burning like low-tech pyrography, anyway. Perhaps shallow-carve the initials out of a lump of wood following some nice lettering drawn on first, use an old coathanger (don't inhale the coating - nasty, I imagine) bandsaw blade or some such to follow the carving, then attach an handle and heat that sucker up for burning in.

 

[BigShot]

Further thought: Said brand could then become his maker's mark once he's passed his 'apprenticeship'... or just become part of his present.

 

[Mar_mite]

Further thought: Said brand could then become his maker's mark once he's passed his 'apprenticeship'... or just become part of his present.

That's a nice idea.

 

[spiderlane]

Thanks for all the great ideas. In the end I settled on a stencil look because it felt like a good match for a utilitarian piece like a tool box.

I used a technique from a Steve Ramsey video -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq2O66QGCwg where you print a mirror image of your design onto the shiny backing paper from a sheet of labels. You then lay the sheet carefully over the wood and it transfers the ink.

I'm very pleased with the results (in the end I decided to make his sister a box too, since she loves her DT classes at school where I'm delighted that they appear to be teaching her real wood working).

It's nice sharp transfer with just enough bleed to give it that real stencil look. It's a handy technique and of course is not limited to just lettering.


Cheers
Mark

 

[xy mosian]

That has turned out very well, very well indeed. Did you have to apply heat to complete the transfer? I assume an inkjet printer, I must try it with my Laserjet. Those label backing sheets come in useful for glueing up, glue doesn't stick to them.
xy

 

[spiderlane]

Yeah just a cheap old inkjet printer. No heat required, just taped the edge of the paper down so that it didn't slide about when I was transferring the ink.

I was surprised how well it worked. I did a couple of test prints on some scrap and was impressed with the results.

Cheers
Mark

 

[xy mosian]

Go on, how did you transfer the Ink?

xy

 

[spiderlane]

Just laid the paper onto the wood and used a rag to press evenly across all the lettering from the fixed edge. The moment the ink touched the wood it just seemed to "blot" it off the shiny paper (there was almost nothing visible on the shiny paper once done)

Before (just off the printer) ->

After ->

 

[nanscombe]

Of course, by using an ink jet to print onto the shiny surface of the label backing paper the ink would probably just sit on the surface instead of being absorbed as it would be with ordinary paper.

 

[dc_ni]

If you jump to 6.14 you can see how Steve does it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdo64-wo63Q

 

[xy mosian]

Just laid the paper onto the wood and used a rag to press evenly across all the lettering from the fixed edge. The moment the ink touched the wood it just seemed to "blot" it off the shiny paper (there was almost nothing visible on the shiny paper once done)

Brilliant thanks.
xy