SignCrafter Sign Making Kit Review
A template-and-router kit for cutting lettering. Where it beats freehand carving, and the current kit to buy.
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This URL originally covered a sign-making template kit. The brand on the old article was not something I could verify, so this page covers how these kits work and points at a current one.
How a template sign kit works
A set of letter templates, a rail or frame that indexes them at a consistent baseline and spacing, a router, and a guide bushing that rides the inside of the template while the bit cuts inside it.
The bushing is what makes it work and also what constrains it. The cutter is always offset from the template edge by half the difference between the bushing diameter and the bit diameter — so the template is not the letter, it is the letter plus an offset all the way round. Change the bit or the bushing and the letters change size.
Get the bushing and bit combination the kit specifies. This is the single most common way people ruin a first sign.
Why the letterforms look the way they do
A bushing has to physically fit inside every enclosed space in the letter. The counter of an “e”, the gap in an “a”, the crossbar junction of an “A” — all of them have to be wide enough to admit the bushing plus the bit.
That is why router sign typefaces are uniformly chunky, wide and open. It is not a styling choice, it is a mechanical constraint, and no kit escapes it.
Technique that actually matters
Cut shallow, in two or three passes. A V-bit taken to full depth in one pass in hardwood will burn and chatter.
Feed against the rotation so the bit pulls the bushing into the template rather than away from it. If the router wants to run away from you, you are going the wrong way round.
Finish the sign before you cut it if you are painting the letters. Seal the face first, then cut, then flood the letters with paint — the sealed face wipes clean and you get a crisp edge without masking.
What to buy
The Milescraft SignPRO kit, linked below, is the current version: interchangeable letter and number templates on an indexing rail, sized for a compact router and the supplied bushing.
For anything where the typeface matters, a CNC or a laser is the honest answer. For house numbers and workshop signs, this is a cheap and satisfying afternoon.
What works
- Letter templates index to a rail, so spacing and baseline stay consistent across a whole sign
- Works with a compact router and a guide bushing rather than needing a dedicated machine
- Interchangeable templates mean numbers and a second typeface can be added later
What doesn't
- You are locked to the typefaces supplied, and the letterforms are chunky by necessity — a bushing has to fit inside every counter