How to Make a 3D Wood Sign With Your Laser Engraver

As an owner of an Etsy Shop that has run out of projects of your own to make, getting an order to make a sign creates an exciting rush of adrenaline, but it is just the start of the long process to make a laser engraved wood sign. Outlined below is the process we went through on a fun order we had recently.

Step 1 - Find out what vision the customer has for the sign, and create a mockup in the computer to make sure it is exactly what they are looking for before building anything.

Step 2: Find the wood that we will use to make the sign.  Since we like to use upcycled or reclaimed wood in as many of our projects as we can. This often starts with scouring neighborhoods, marketplaces, or any other places that people like to get rid of things they don’t need anymore, tearing the wood down to its pieces, and then prepping it to make it look like a usable board again.  For this project we had a leftover piece of mahogany from another project.

Step 3: Get the board into shape needed for this sign. For this sign, that meant planing the wood to the correct thickness, cutting the piece of wood we had into three pieces and then gluing them back together to make a square.

Step 4: Laser work. Cut out the letters, and laser engrave the sign onto the prepared piece of wood.  This step is pretty self-explanatory.

Step 5: Finish the laser cut/engraved pieces.  For this sign that meant painting the 3D letters we had cut out, cutting the sign into its final shape (a circle), sanding the edges to make it look cool, and finally putting a keyhole hanger on the back to make the sign easy to hang on a wall.

Step 6: Assemble and Finish the Sign.  For a 3D sign that means gluing all the letters to the sign and putting on the final coat of polyurethane.  This is always the most exciting part of the process for me because you finally get to see the sign take its final shape after all the work.

Step 7: Take an awesome picture of the final product and enjoy it for a few minutes before remembering you made it for someone else. Then get excited to send it to them so they can enjoy it as much as you do.