Can you use wood filler to fix a painted sign?

I was cutting a sign today that required a bit change. Me being so the extremely smart person that I am, forgot to check and make sure the 0 was correct for the cut. Luckily only 2 letters were affected. So my question is, can I use wood filler to fill the mistakes, and paint over it? Would it look extremely stupid? Thanks in advance!

It would probably take longer to make it look right than to start over. Just my two cents.

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Youā€™re probably right. I just didnā€™t want to shell out the $25 for another board :joy:. Thank you!

The only loss would be a little putty and time. You will need to overfill, sand smooth and repaint. Most likely it will always stick out to you the maker but ask someone else before tossing the project. It never hurts to try. If the marks are not too deep try wood glue and saw dust instead of putty. You may get a better match. Either putty or wood dust you need to over fill and sand.

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Iā€™m going to try the saw dust. Iā€™m hoping it works out. Iā€™m just not gonna charge them for the sign. But Iā€™ll give that a try! Thank you!

Mix the wood glue and saw dust (from the project) in a cup and use an icecream stick or small piece of wood to apply the glue and sawdust. Sand it smooth and repaint. Be sure to let the glue dry properly before sanding or you will have a sticky mess.

ā€¦ it will always stick out to you the maker ā€¦

Good and wise words. Hey! Make that into a sign and hang it over your machine.

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And make sure you make a mistake, correct it, and redo it on the sign!

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For this project, you donā€™t NEED to use sawdust - the wood filler (or bondo) would work just fine. Usually, you use the glue and sawdust trick (which is great, by the way) when youā€™re trying to preserve the ability to take stain or to mimic grain. But since youā€™re painting this, and your grain seems to be pretty plain you should easily get away with a premixed filler. If you want, take a razor and cut shallow ā€œgrain linesā€ into the dried filler, to give it a textureā€¦it will disappear after you paint.

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What happened was when I was changing bits my hand slipped and bumped the y axis backwards, and I didnā€™t think to zero it again. I just moved it forward thinking that would fix it. Iā€™ve never done that before so I was pretty confused on what to do. Now I know, when in doubt zero it again. :joy:

Iā€™m going to try fixing it, and recut another one. Itā€™s for my cousins diesel mechanic shop, and the filler I put it covers it up pretty nicely. Iā€™ll just give him the two. Thank you so much!

Did you completely shut down the machine when you changed the bit, then? I canā€™t see how the Y axis would have moved, otherwise.

I appreciate the need for safety being paramount, but Iā€™m not sure itā€™s necessary to completely shut down the machine to change the bit, though.

Just saying :+1: :thinking:

I didnā€™t shut down the machine. I turned off the router but nothing more. Iā€™m not quite sure how it happened but I do know that the zero point was 2.450mm off in the Y direction according to Carbide Motion. Iā€™m not entirely sure why, but I zeroed it after the first two letter mistakes that I had pictures of and it fixed it. If you have any ideas why that happened Iā€™d love to hear though. Iā€™m just extremely confused :joy:. Thank you so much!!!

It must have been a lot more than a minor bump - because if the motors were engaged (i.e., the SO was on), then it would have been hard to move. You must have really made the motor skip. Unless the head was moving while you bumped it (and missed the move)

Iā€™m going to make this sign too lol

It makes so much sense lmao :rofl:

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Unless someone knows better, I canā€™t any reason why this would happen if the Shapeoko is powered up, as the stepper motors hold everything in place. You shouldnā€™t be able to ā€˜nudgeā€™ the axes, let alone force them - unless youā€™re bionic!

Is it possible the Y axis was showing 2.450mm because thatā€™s were it was positioned, in relation to the zero point?

That comes with the territory, early on. In time youā€™ll be answering otherā€™s questions like an expert!

I hit it EXTREMELY hard. I was trying to loosen the router but that holds the bit in place, and my father tightened too much. I have a cut on my hand from it but the y carriage moved slightly and I didnā€™t think of it.

When it was showing the 2.450mm, it was at its zero point because I had a marker over the zero point. And thank you!!!

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