With the sign routed and ready for assembly it was time to make things real sturdy and built to last. I had routed a cavity into the centre section the the sign into which I placed a welded steel 1"x1" square tubing frame. The mounting posts protruded from the top and one side. I used one part Coastal Enterprises PB Bond 240 glue to hold things tight. I also use some coarse wood screws which I will leave in place.
While the sign glue was curing I fired up the MultiCam plasma cutter and cut out the decorative bracket filigree from 1/4" thick steel plate. It took longer to design than to cut by far.
I fashioned the rest of the bracket from 3/8" flat bar and a piece of schedule 40 - 10" pipe, then welded the fancy filigree to the top. A few minutes with the air poured die grinder shaped the edges of the banner, and added texture to it's surface. Then I used the die grinder to create the woodgrain texture to the edges, top, and bottom of the wood boards. As quick as that I was ready to have some real fun sculpting the characters onto the sign.
I decided the two back to back trolls would be similar but not identical. That meant I could have twice the fun with no worry about making them exactly the same. Those who take the time to look at both sides of the sign will get their reward. It took me about three and a half hours to mix the sculpting epoxy and sculpt the characters - a very fun afternoon's work!
