# Routing names



## Farmerboy9087 (Sep 6, 2010)

I am wanting to route someones name into a piece of wood around 24" X 6" and was wondering what the best way to get the letters on the wood for a pattern to run the router along would be.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

You could go this route.
http://www.rockler.com/articles/turnlock-router-signcrafter-system.cfm












 







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## WHWoodworking (Nov 1, 2011)

Farmerboy9087 said:


> I am wanting to route someones name into a piece of wood around 24" X 6" and was wondering what the best way to get the letters on the wood for a pattern to run the router along would be.


 I used to manage a trophy/engraving shop and ran a Xenetech engraver. It was capable of engraving into wood and other materials with a spinning cutter. Check with your local trophy shops and see if any have a large computerized engraver and if they'll be able/willing to do it. They should have a number of fonts available and with multiple passes could make it fairly deep. Anyone with that type of engraver and is worth their salt will be more than willing to accept the job. The other route is laser engraving, also used by trophy shops. Good luck


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## jkleitner (Nov 18, 2011)

My suggestion for you if you would like to do the engraving yourself is to first make a pattern out of 1/8" hardboard. Draw out what you want on the hardboard and cut it out with a jigsaw, bandsaw, or scrollsaw. Then sand the edges of the hardboard if necessary to make all the sides smooth. Next, using a template guide in your router clamp the template to the piece and follow the hardboard template with your template guide. Keep in mind, you may have to make the template larger than your desired end font size to correspond with the router bit diameter compared with your router bit bushing. It is a lot harder than taking it to your local trophy shop but I think the pride of having accomplished it yourself is worth something too. Good luck.
Josh


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## jredburn (Feb 20, 2011)

For a one of kind project, take it to a CNC shop. It will be cheaper than buying equipment you will never use again.
Regards
Joe


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