Painted letters, and pierced cuts

[dehrlich]

So I'm curious how people go about painting the letters on signs once carved... like smaller letters. Talking about doing like gold letters on walnut. I'm thinking options are:

1. Cover area to be carved with blue tape, carve, paint, then remove tape. does tape interfere with carving?

2. Carve deep enough, paint whole area, then plane the top layer off?

Second question, pieced cuts. I tried one and it didn't go all the way through. Should I laminate two boards together so it cuts all the way through without contacting the traction belts? Or maybe my board was a hair too thick, not sure.

Oh, and the locking handle on the front of my machine does not stay locked all the way out, is there an adjustment somewhere I'm not finding? Does not seem to interfere with operation, but if it's supposed to be locked then I want it locked. Thanks for any help!

[unitedcases]

For painting raised letters you just have to have a steady hand. For recessed letters just paint and sand or steel wool off the excess.

Pierced carvings will go deep enough to penetrate the bottom of the board but only while keeping the pattern intact. Here is my trick, when the carving is done I take a metal scribe and run it along the outline of the pattern. I carved alot of sapele which is fairly tough and my stuff falls right out. 5 minutes tops.

Locking handle. No need to even use it. I don't think anybody even does. I know I don't think about mine since I have a big dust sucker right over it and I don't even see it.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

[eelamb]

To add to unitedcases comment. You do not need to worry about the cutting bit touching the traction belts. Notice where the bit runs back and forth is the same space between the front and back traction belt.

And I agree with the comment few if any use the locking handle.

For the letters, raised letter are sometimes done using a micro fiber 4" roller. For recesses letters it is best to seal the wood first to prevent bleeding of the paint into the grain, then any paint on the surface can be sanded off, or use a scrapper to remove it.

No matter what method you use to paint letters a steady hand is required. :p

[fwharris]

If your raised letter are the top surface of the board you can paint first, mask off the board (some use contact shelf paper), carve and remove paper...

On the locking handle one of the arm end might of popped out to the hole in the center ring/washers.. see page 5 http://www.carvewright.com/assets/service/Maintenence/CW_parts_list_manual.pdf

[cnsranch]

Re raised letters - a trick I like is to use fine sponges - you can find them at a hobby store, or use your wife's makeup sponges. Put some paint on some surface (I like to use the top of a plastic container) dab the flat end of the sponge in the paint, dab it on a clean part of the container top to remove the excess paint, and dab the letters with the sponge. If you're careful, and don't load the sponge up too much, you don't have to worry about the paint getting on the sides of the letters.

[mtylerfl]

Paint Pens and Paint Markers are mighty handy for painting raised lettering and other raised /carved items. Available at just about any arts & crafts store (like Michael's Arts & Crafts) and sometimes at a home improvement store (like Lowes).

[cestout]

Like Michael T, I use chisel point marking pens - usually from Michael's. They have 14caret gold pens. No runs, no drips, few errors.
Clint