On Monday I finished routing the wooden portion of the Watts Water Plaque. I had to reduce the width by one inch in order to make it fit in the stock we had. I also reduced the length by 1.5 inches so that the aspect ratio would remain the same.
The routing went exceptionally smooth, and was finished quite quickly. I then cleaned everything up and sanded all the surfaces down.
Tuesday I stained the wooden part of the Watts Water Plaque with Light Brown stain. I also started on the metal bit. I plasma cut a rectangle of 1/8in aluminum sheet metal, deburred it, and began polishing it. A combination of Brasso polishing compound, fine steel wool, and the polishing wheel gave the best finish of the (numerous) methods I tested.
Wednesday, I finished up polishing the aluminum sheet, engraved it, and with the help of Ben Wirz, applying some paint and sanding it to make the letters contrast more.
This is mostly what the plaque looked like before the paint treatment.
This is the plaque after the paint. It does look better, but it is highly lighting dependent. In some conditions it looks great, and in some it’s completely unreadable. I am considering remaking the metal portion of the plaque and instead laser-engraving painted aluminum, it might look better.