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Milescraft SignCrafter
Review
By Dean Bielanowski
http://www.onlinetoolreviews.com/reviews/signcrafter.htm
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We got through assembly of the rails and clamps to hold the
letters ok...
The clamps that hold the signcrafter to your workpiece.
Despite their small size, they work well once everything is
locked down.
Half the battle is finding all the letters you need from the
pile!
Once your letters are inserted and arranged, you can attach
the second clamp/rail holder and tighten it up...
This adjustable clamp pushes, and keeps letter templates snug
against each other.
I am making a sign for my 2 year old's bedroom.
These support bridges slide along the rails and help to
eliminate flexing/bending of the aluminum rails when the weight
of the router is added.
The supplied bushings and adaptor will fit most Skil and
Craftsman routers, and some other models...
They didn't fit my smaller router, but I do have a bushing
set for my big Triton router that works fine.
Note the position of the support brackets, helping take the
weight of the 3HP Triton router.
Note the "O" in the left. This is what happens when
you forget to slide those same support brackets out of the way
of the base!
A nice clean depth is achieved. The generic block font of the
letters in the Signcrafter package should appeal to many.
Practice makes perfect... I still need a little more practice
:-)
After a few practice runs, you will be making signs the same
quality as this one!
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One of the best aspects of woodworking is that it allows
you to produce items that are one of a kind or cannot be bought anywhere
else. You can craft items for friends, relatives, or even just for
yourself! You can increase the value of a gift tenfold when it has that
handcrafted touch. One thing I have always liked are wooden signs.
Whether they be displayed on a shop front, at the entrance of a property
or on a bedroom wall, the warmth and unique characteristics of wooden
signs are simply more impressive than their plastic or metal
counterparts. The trouble is, making them by hand can be a difficult
process, particularly if you are not into carving, or do not have the
patience for it! So, today I thought we would take a look at a sign
making set from Milescraft. Designed to be used with a router, the
SignCrafter allows sign creation to be a much simpler affair...
SignCrafter
As you can see from the image above, and the images to the right,
the SignCrafter comprises two main components - the letter holding
assembly, and the individual sets of letters, numbers and symbols. The
SignCrafter ships unassembled so some basic assembly of the components
is required.
Assembly took me roughly 15 minutes, although I was
watching a baseball game on TV at the same time. The instructions
provide an assembly diagram. I must admit that it wasn't the best set of
instructions I have ever seen (diagram only - no text) although I
managed to assemble all parts without too much frustration. Just take
your time, sort out the various nuts and bolts and other components
before you begin and you should not have too many dramas. There are 4
boxes of templates (the letters, numbers symbols etc), 2 which contain
the smaller templates and the other 2 containing the larger templates.
There are 2 of each letter/number in each size in case your words
require the same letter twice. Included in the kit are 2 template guides
to attach to your router. The documentation mentions these will fit most
Skil and Craftsman brand routers. Unfortunately they didn't fit mine,
but if you have a router with a set of guide bushings, you can use those
instead. A 7/16" and 5/8" bushing is what is required,
preferably with at least a 1/2" bushing depth. The router and
router bit are the only other two additional items you need to get
going. It should be noted that you can buy special sign making router
bits for your router, however, these would need to be correctly sized to
be able to plunge through the bushings with adequate clearance.
How it works...
Firstly, find a suitable piece of timber or MDF to make a sign with.
The aluminum rails are a fixed length, so your timber must also be of a
similar length to work easily. The rails are intended to work on boards
as long as 30” and as wide as 4” to 12”. You can use it on longer
boards if needed by simply sliding the whole Signcrafter jig over as you
go, although you might have to do some measuring to ensure even spacing
between letters. While I'm on that subject, the templates are designed
as such to provide even spacing between letters when your words are set
up within the rails. This eliminates most tedious measuring requirements
in the majority of signs you will make. Shorter signs can be made my
working on a longer piece of material to begin with, then cutting it
down to size later, or you can do them by disassembling the Signcrafter
and using the rails themselves held in place by other forms of clamps.
It's a little involved, but if you have a need, once you have used the
Signcrafter the first time, its not too difficult to figure out how you
could use it for shorter lengths of material.
Once you have your blank piece ready, you clamp one end
of the Signcrafter to the piece (bear in mind the following was how I
set things up). The clamps provided are not large, and look a little
flimsy at first, however, once they are applied they hold really well,
especially after you tighten the end brackets to the clamp rod. With one
side clamped, you can slide your letters into the rails, in order, from
the other end. You can use other templates to act as spacers if needed
at both ends, and smaller, thinner spacer templates are included if you
are making more than one word in a line, allowing you to nicely space
between words. You can use a combination of large letters and small
letters, all large, all small, and mix in either large or small number
templates as well. The larger templates will produce 2 1/2" sized
letters/numbers, while the smaller templates produce letters/numbers of
1 1/2" in size. You are provided with the full alphabet of letters
A through Z and 0 to 9 in numbers. There are 2 of each letter and number
in each size. Essentially, you can create signs with any word/number
known to man, or woman... It is very flexible in this regard. All
letters are the same font.
The font is block type, and it is quite nice actually. I
have seen and used other letter templates before and the font used with
those templates is rather unappealing, sometimes quite ugly!
With your letters/numbers now arranged to make your
word, slide on the 2 black supports and attach the other end bracket and
secure it down. An adjustable clamp on this end helps keep letters snug
up against each other so they wont move during the routing process.
With everything clamped down, you are pretty much ready
to go. Hook up your router to a power supply, ensure you have the right
bushing installed for the letter size - 5/8" for larger letters,
7/16" for smaller letters. You can use straight bits, ball nose,
v-bits etc equally as well.
Now... I have read other reviews of this particular
product and one of them mentioned really bad flexing of the rails when
routing out the letters due to the weight of the router. I am not sure
whether this was an issue with earlier models, or this person just
wasn't using the supporting bridges supplied. These fit onto the rails
and can slide along them either way. Because the rails sit up above your
workpiece, they are prone to flex if you DO NOT use these bridges.
Position the bridges fairly close to your router placed over the letter
you are going to rout out. You must ensure there is adequate clearance
for the base plate of the router on both sides of the letter, as you
could hit the support brackets first, thinking this was the edge of the
letter template and ruin the letter. I was guilty of this on my first
run. The brackets extend down to touch your workpiece so they provide
full support to the rails when positioned appropriately. As you can see
from the photo of the letter "J" I routed out in the right
column, even with a heavy 3HP router riding on the rails, there is no
evidence of rail bending/flex, producing a nice smooth-bottomed cut. As
you rout out each letter more your support brackets along the rail for
maximum benefit.
Speaking of large routers, ideally you want a smaller
router for this type of work, and one that slides smoothly across the
rails. I found adding a little wax to the rails helped here. To get
good, clean letters you need to be able to keep the bushing riding
around the outside of the templates religiously. The Triton was not
ideal for this task. It is heavy and bulky and more suited for table use
rather than freehand use (table use is what it was primarily designed
for). Saying that, you can get perfectly fine results with any router
with a little practice. There is no fault in the Signcrafter itself in
this regard, just user error. After a few runs, you will iron out the
bugs in your technique and become more accustomed to using a router with
the jig. I found pulling the router toward you gave more control than
pushing it, although it's a personal thing. The router does ride on the
aluminum rails, so the letter templates do not flex at all, although
just be careful when inserting the bushing into the templates, and make
sure it is in the template before you switch on and plunge down for the
cut. The last thing you want to do is ruin your new letter templates!
Replacements are available from Milescraft (for a small charge) in case
you do accidentally damage one. If you find you are making words that
repeat the same letter more than twice, you can also order extra sets of
letters/numbers to solve this issue.
 Basically,
you just start on one end and move to the next, routing out letters and
adjusting your support brackets as you go. It doesn't take long to make
a sign once the initial setup is finished. I found sorting out and
finding the actual letters I needed from the bunch to be the most
time-consuming task. You can make multiple line signs by simply
adjusting and moving the clamp downwards on your workpiece, and the same
process begins again. There is no real brain-power involved with the
task, just a few simple steps to remember as you go along. You may only
need to change bushings half way through if your sign uses a combination
of larger and smaller letters/numbers.
Ideally, for best accuracy, a router with a see-through
base plate or a router that allows you to see your bushing riding around
the template would ensure optimum results, because you can anticipate
all the the turns in direction needed for specific letters, and not risk
moving the router away from the template edge and spoiling the letter.
Conclusion
I have made four signs so far with the Signcrafter. The first two
were practice runs and had a few errors... I just finished one out of
wood the other day for a rushed birthday present. Hopefully I can get it
back soon for a brief period to take some photos to add here. A natural
wood grain sign looks really nice. What you can do to get a nice finish
is paint the whole sign once lettering has completed in black, let it
dry, then belt sand or plane the face away removing the paint on the
surface (not in the lettered depressions). What this does is give you
nice clean paint lines around the letters further enhancing their shape
and borders. You can then apply your favorite wood finish, taking care
around the painted letters, or even cover them with a clear protective
finish.
Are their any major problems with the Signcrafter? Not
many. Most problems you may encounter are likely to be a result of user
error. It would be good if Milescraft offered shorter rails as an
accessory to work with shorter material lengths. The product is by no
means foolproof, no product really is, but for US$39.99 it is one of the
cheapest sign making sets going around that does give good results with
a little practice.
With Christmas coming up or just for family or
relative's birthdays, wooden signs certainly make a very unique gift
that will not be forgotten in a hurry. They can also be decorative or
serve a practical purpose around the house or workshop. Every workshop
should have a nice wooden sign don't you think? :-)
TurnLock™
Router SignCrafter™ System
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