Oregon State Beavers?

[Zephrant]

I'd like to make an OSU beavers sign for the grill protecting the cab rear window on my Dad's truck. I have a place that is full bed width, and 7" high that I can use, that will be above the window enough to not impact the rear-view though the window. I have some 48" wide 12 ga steel that should work well too.

I'm thinking of a full beaver and O.S.U. or, or maybe a head on each side of the letters.

Would anyone have a beaver head or full beaver that I could use? I'm a bit afraid to just search google for "beaver".... : )

Thanks-

[Zephrant]

Here is one idea that I'm looking at- Any suggestions on how to tie in the middle of the letters, without it looking bad? I think everything else would cut out OK.

I'm also concerned about the kerf when I make this no larger than 7" tall. Might be too much detail...

[Zephrant]

What about the beaver in the background, and the word "Beavers" cut out separately, and welded on top?

OSU_Beavers_bw-1.png

OSU_Beavers_bw-2.png

Maybe paint the beaver orange, and do brushed steel with clear-coat on the word?

[bhamer62]

get rid of the big black blotch below the beaver and bump the word beaver against the bottom of his chin, then trim away till he is hooked on there good. I think that would look best

[bhamer62]

somehow that just don't sound right

[Zephrant]

Sounds like a good idea though, I'll give it a try when I fire up the torch this weekend.

Thanks-

[Zephrant]

Well, I decided to give it a quick try tonight. Here is the two-part cutout, straight off of the machine.

I have a nice black paint (Rustolium bed liner) that would work for the beaver, but I need a tough orange paint for the "Beaver" text.

This weekend I'll clean it up with the flap disk, and see what I can do to paint it.

[AGAUTO]

That is sweet.

Might you be willing to share that file?

thanks Daron

[Zephrant]

Would love to- will post it when I get back to the computer. What format? I basically just let plasmacam process the above files. Very little cleanup at all.

[Zephrant]

Here is a DXF- I made it a little larger, and cut out a new one today. Paint is drying, I'll post a picture of it tomorrow.

[Zephrant]

Here it is, mounted. I re-cut it a little larger, then mounted the "Beavers" with 8-32 screws though them both, with a nut in-between them. I put the screw though from the back, then welded it to the "Beavers" and ground it off.

I made a mistake in painting it first though- the welding and grinding messed up the paint more than I thought, and I had to sand off "Beavers" and re-do it. Hence some messiness around the letters from the softened paint that didn't all come off.

I used Rustolium truck bed liner for the black, and a primer/paint combo for the orange. It was the only can at HD that was a close match.

But I was on a timeline- I was returning the truck today, and I wanted it mounted before it went back. I ended up masking it off yet again, and giving it one more top-coat after it was on the truck.

I didn't say a thing to my dad about it, just took the truck back and waited until he noticed. My dad grinned like a kid when he saw it. He asked if I had bought it. Definitely made it worth while.

This was my first real project, other than a frog and a fairy for the kids (unpainted). Learned a lot, and it will be cleaner next time.

[ssbn.981]

nice!