Look for PVC sheets rather than those trim boards.
Wow. Ive never had any issues with quality. Sometimes a dent or two on the smooth side from being mishandled. Or staples on the ends but never everything like you found. I always use the smooth side for my projects. I did try running a PVC board through my plainer once, don’t remember why i did that. I think i messed up a sign and thought i could plane it down and reuse the piece. But BOY was that a mess. Planers don’t like PVC. 
Here’s one more PVC one I did. It turned out to be very popular at the show i went to.
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I’ve bought a couple of 4x8 sheets of 1/2" PVC from the Depot. They are foam core. i.e. the surface has a skin of solid material, but the center looks like Chris H first picture above, although I haven’t found any defects in the centers. If I paint the uncut surface I need to scuff with 120 - 220 grit first. If I flatten the surface like for an epoxy poured part, It has to be sealed before applying a finish.
Several outdoor signs are going through their first winter now, so we’ll see how they hold up.
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I thought i’de expand my interest a little so i purchased an Atomstack X30 Pro laser engraver. Got it delivered and all put together earlier this week. Now i need to learn how to use it. Going to start with the free LaserGRBL software and see how everything works and then maybe upgrade to the Light Burn S/W. So far im pretty impressed with the quality of the machine, Although i think the learning curve might be longer than i expected. Well see if it was worth the investment. My wife wants to know how much i spent on it. When she does that i always tell her half of what i actually spent and she says thats too much. 
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Ouch.
Two things:
- no cutting PVC in the laser — makes chlorine gas
- my father actually kept a PO Box in a separate town for the catalogs and invoices and receipts from his various hobbies — there’s an old joke about this sort of thing, the punchline is, “Honey! I found someone who was willing to pay even more for all of your <guns/fishing rods/boats/hot rods/tools> than you said you bought them for” — a constant refrain of conversation for my father and his friends was, “I hope my wife/kids don’t sell my stuff for what I said I paid for it.”
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Definitely looks like you have had far better luck with the pvc boards then i have. The only other thing i can think of is i bought the boards during the height of the pandemic so it was curbside pickup only, i didnt pick the boards myself. Maybe i just got unlikely with the ones the staff chose.
I’ve checked out a few local plastic suppliers and i found one that offers acrylic sheet, both cast and extruded, that looks quite nice at a price i like Also comes in quite a few colours which would be handy to limit the need for painting. Thoughts on using acrylic for house numbers?
Acrylic is a good, modern choice. I don’t think it’s as durable as PVC (more brittle), but it will hold up to weather just fine.
Do you just do the numbers or are you making a complete sign?
I’ve made both. I thought acrylic might be a good choice for individual numbers. I’ll likely try a sign style as well but im not sure how well that will work with acrylic.
The only thing I see with that is you can buy precut acrylic numbers for pretty cheap. I think I’d have to get a really good deal on the colored acrylic to make it worth making my own. Hard to compete with lasers on that mass produced acrylic stuff.
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Yeah, i’ve had that thought too. I’m just trying to find something I can source easily that will mill well and make for nice numbers. I think if I can offer different colours and fonts, there still might be a market for that sort of thing. The other use for acrylic I was thinking of is for home decor type stuff like wall art, name signs etc.
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Another PVC Design. I changed the design a little from the picture.
Carbide Create Version 7
American Flag With Outline.c2d (532 KB)
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