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Thread: Please help me make love...
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10th February 2014, 10:46 PM #1New Member
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Please help me make love...
Hi all
My friend has a wedding business and has asked me to help him design and make four large wooden letters (L, O, V, E) as per the attached. I've mocked up the L in Google Sketchup (also attached). You can see that it's like an L shaped box without a lid. Into the box I'm thinking of fitting another panel with the lights screwed on which can be easily removed for maintenance, with the cabling hidden behind the panel in a narrow gap.
The high level dimensions are:
130cm high
15cm deep
600cm wide
They will need to be durable yet movable. They should be able to cope with the odd bit of light rain. They need to be pleasant to look at but I'm no woodworking expert so they need to be easy to construct. I'm planning to send the designs to a company to cut the pieces out for me, so I'll just need to construct them and do any finishing/painting required.
The questions I can think of are: (sorry I can't be more specific, but it's hard to know exactly what to ask given my inexperience!):
1. What material should I use? Plywood? How thick? Should I make the back panel thicker than the side panels?
2. How should I join the pieces? Screws? Glue? Any particular joins?
3. What kind of finish should I use? Paint? Varnish? How do I waterproof them?
4. Any particular concerns around the electrical aspects? Is my idea to fit another panel inside the box a good one? Is there a better way?
Basically any advise would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Chris
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10th February 2014 10:46 PM # ADSGoogle Adsense Advertisement
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11th February 2014, 10:56 AM #2... and this too shall pass away ...
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Judging from the pics, weight is potentially a big issue.
You could make them out of 3/4 inch or thicker exterior grade ply, but they would be heavy and perhaps difficult to transport.
My initial inclination would be to make up light framework from something like Surian cedar (light, but reasonably stiff and not too expensive) and to cover that frame in the thinnest exterior grade ply I could buy.
The other issue is stability in service. Made as per the above, a stiff breeze might blow them over ... not a desirable effect. Even made in 3/4 ply, the letters would not be stable. So, that issue needs to be conquered. Perhaps you could make the base board for each letter larger, to form a base, and to make the base board out of thicker, heavier material. Your other option is to have some sort of bracing legs, but my guess is you really want free standing letters. My best solution so far is to make the bases bigger and to glue a plastic jerry-can to each base. If they were filled with water after being erected, that would likely keep everything reasonably stable.
Getting a waterproof finish is not tough. If it is suitable, I'd be inclined to use a waterbased exterior paint over ply. But if you want high gloss, enamel paint would do the job. Remember, the higher the gloss, the better the preparation must be to eliminate blemishes on the surface. MDF is a great substrate for paint, so you may wish to consider thin HMR MDF over a cedar or similar frame. MDF is also a cheap option.
Let's see what else the brains trust comes up with.
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