Wall Hanging Wedding Guestbook

This idea came to me before my wedding when I wanted to let my guests leave us a note, but then display it on a wall in our home rather than hiding away in a book somewhere.

I designed this sign to have the couple's last name and added a decorative pluralization and "The" to the beginning.

I used steel as my shop is a metalworking space and I have a CNC Plasma Cutter. A CNC Table isn't required though, you could draw your logo on steel or aluminum and cut it out with a jigsaw easily in such a thin sheet of metal.

I used 16ga which is about 1/20 of an inch thick, it's a good balance between strength and weight.

With a 4.5" angle grinder and some 40 grit flap disks I removed all the dross (melted metal "sawdust") from the edges of the cut piece. If you use a jigsaw, this will be a burr instead of dross.

After finishing the main grinding I switch to a NEW 80 grit flap disk to get a smooth, even finish.

To get an even better final surface I used a pneumatic die grinder with a surface finishing disk to polish the entire face.

Sand paper up to around 400 grit would work just as well but requires some elbow grease.

After cleaning up the steel piece I took it to a local powdercoater who gave it a satin black finish.

I also showed how my friend Chad uses his powdercoating gun and oven to powder coat some other pieces.

If you wanted to get something like this cut, a local CNC shop should charge around $85 for the metal cut out and powdercoating should cost around $40

If you'd like to purchase a wedding guest book like this I sell them at https://www.42fab.com/signage/wall-hanging-wedding...

Thanks for Stopping By!