ATTENTION!!
SQUIRREL X-ING!!
Hi, I wanted to make a cute road sign similar to the deer crossing one. I decided on squirrels bc they’re basically rice’s mascot.
I started by creating my illustrator file. I used the template for the diamonds in canvas files, found a cute squirrel svg in thenounproject, and wrote some text that said “SQUIRREL X-ING” and chose a font similar to the roadsign.
I did this process sort of later at night when the plasma cutter wasn’t available, so I decided to prep my vinyl sticker. I adjusted the file so that it would make a good sticker. It ended up looking good. I decided not to plasma cut our the text or squirrel because I wanted it to look like a real road sign and nice and crisp. 
Once I had my design solidified, I plasma cut my pieces. This part was really annoying because my dimensions kept messing up so I took like 2 hours trying to print but oh well. It finally worked after I adjusted it in torchmate and they looked really good. Fishing them out was icky.
After plasma cutting, I went to angle grind outside. The small angle grinders weren’t working so I had to use the huge heavy one which hurt my hand sooo bad but it was fun to use the magnet. No issues here.
After angle grinding, I ran to the wet lab to sand blast. This part was so annoying because it took foreverrrr!!!! But I finally finished. No issues.
After sand blasting, I went outside to spray paint them completely yellow. There was an amazon box outside to I was able to spray paint both sides at the same time and leave them to dry.
After they dried, I applied my vinyl sticker and spray painted it black. I let that dry for around 15 mins and removed the vinyl. Some outside edges of the black paint seeped into the yellow but not too bad. I spray painted clear gloss coat and put a tab on the back stating my process.
Final workspace:
Final Product:
COST ESTIMATE:
- 10inx10in sheet of steel (amazon): ~$10
- 10inx10in vinyl sticker (amazon): ~$2
- yellow and black spray paint (home depot): ~$12
- labor (4 hours at $15/hr) = $60
- use of plasma cutter and sand blaster: ~$8
- angle grinder (amazon): $35
- magnetic chuck (amazon): $150
Total: $277
