Question for our in-house woodworker peeps

[2black1s]

Good Luck with your project. I'm one of the "woodworking peeps" here and I saw your question but I didn't respond simply because I didn't have any ideas to contribute.

Years ago, when I was married, I did something similar but used 1/4-inch stainless tubing to make the letters. The plan was to mount them but I never got that far.

[dgage]

To get an idea of what my machine can carve, do an image search for “Vcarve Signs”. And I can cut aluminum as well though much slower than wood. And some have filled in the letter cutouts with black epoxy or paint to ensure a contrast with the wood.

[tomsteve]

New Question - I'm making a little something for the Mrs and I need some advice. Basically, I have a 12" square of 1/8" balsa that I need to carve out a bunch of letters for a saying.

Looking for recommendations for the best way to carve said letters completely out of the material. The goal is to carve the saying out, stain the wood, then lay it over a matching square of black ABS that has brushed aluminum contact paper on it. Then the whole thing will get put in a frame (which I'm trying to decide if I also build, but that's for a later date). Hopefully this makes sense.

What are folks recommendations? I should add I already have a nice small file set for touch up work.

your choice of wood is the softest, most fragile species possible. i would suggest switching species. if you want it out of solid wood, go with hard maple. it will be much easier to work with.or baltic birch plywood. the letters in the attached pic( dont have a better pic of that piece) were cut out of hard maple.
which i used a scroll saw for. IMO, theres no better too for what you want to do.

edit: if you still want to use the balsa, whatever method you try to use to cut it, sandwich it between something like 1/4" ply before cutting. even the finest scrollsaw blade will rip through 1/8" balsa like nothin and your gonna want some control. stacking will help give control