I got inspired to do a new scrollsaw sign after watching the finale of The Mandalorian on Disney+. Mando finally earned his signet, and it looked pretty dope. So, I made one on the scrollsaw and put it on a sign, along with the now famous tagline: “This is the way.”

 

First, I printed off the lettering for “THIS IS THE WAY” in a font that I liked.  Then I drew out the mudhorn signet on the paper by looking at an image I found on Google Images.

 

This is my standard scrollsaw trick, but I put a sheet of contact paper down on my workpiece.  Then I spray that with spray adhesive and lay the drawing/lettering down.  This keeps the drawing snug on the work piece, and it is easy to peel off the contact paper without messing with scraping the goopy spray adhesive off the work piece.

 

This was my first time attempting to scroll letting this small, and I had a couple scares.  Next time, I intend to put a scrap piece down to act as the scrollsaw top, so I don’t have to worry about the hole the blade goes through, and the little tray that can pop up.  These letters were so small, that a few times I had the blade catch and pop the letter up and scare the crap out of me.  You have to really stay focused and make sure you’re applying pressure down at all times as you cut. But I got them all cut without injury, and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out!

 

For the backer, I ripped some 1×4 strips down to about 1” and cut them to length on the miter saw to form the frame.  The backer piece was just a piece of ¼” hardboard that I cut down to 9”x12”.  But I didn’t glue the backer to the frame yet, since I wanted to do the painting first and then glue them up.

 

For color, I primed all of the letters and the mudhorn first with spray primer, touch sanded, and then sprayed all the pieces red.  I did the same for the outer frame 1” pieces.  The backer I spray painted with some Rustoleum Hammered Black to give it some texture.  I sprayed the letters on a piece of wax paper, and once things dried, I had to clean up some excess paint with a knife, but it basically flaked right off.

 

With everything painted, I got to gluing.  I used Loctite gel control super glue to glue the signet and letters to the backer after gluing the backer to the frame.  And to assist to make sure everything was lined up, I used a laser level sitting on the side and pointing back across the piece.  This keeps my letters in a line without having to draw any actual lines on the piece. And other than attaching a hanger to the back of the frame that was it!

 

This was a quick little job.  It’s certainly not super impressive, but it gave me some good scrollsaw practice.  I was able to use a bunch of scraps, paint, and glue that I had on hand, so really this didn’t cost me a dime.  I think there will likely be some future iterations of this in the future, or at least some future Mandalorian and Star Wars scrollsaw projects.

 

Thanks for watching and reading!

Cheers!

Grant