Tombstones

 

Construction:

1.  2inch thick foam board usually comes in pink color with a dimension of 2ft wide and 8ft long. (Home Depot)

2.  Dremel tool with router attachment for inscribing empathies into the foam board.

3.  Bandsaw or jigsaw to cut out the tombstone shapes from the foam board.

4.  Black latex paint to be used as an under coat. (Home Depot)

5.  Gray latex paint to be used as the top coat. (Home Depot)

6.  1/4inch metal rod to be used as stakes.  (Home Depot)

7.  Metal tube with a 1/4inch ID to prolong tombstone life (this is optional)

 

 

 

To start off this project the form board needs to be cut into desirable tombstone shapes.  I had got some inspiration from surfing the web for shapes I can easily cut into the foam board.  The picture on the right show a layout of a tombstone.  I cut the tombstone using a band saw but a jigsaw will work too.

 

 

 

 

 

I printed out some empathies from my computer and cut out the words and taped them to the tombstone.  I then took a pen and traced out each letter which engraves a trace line into the foam.  I took the printed text off the tombstone and using a Dremel with a router attachment and 1/8inch routing bit I began inscribing each letter with a 1/4inch depth into the foam.  Two pictures below show Dremel attachment and engraving the empathy.

 

 

 

 

Picture on the right shows two tombstones that are ready for paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order for the tombstone to stand up correctly a stake needs to be added to the bottom of it.  I used 1/4inch diameter metal rod to stick in the foam.  You will notice in the picture to the right a steel tube that the metal rod is inserted into.  This is optional but the reason behind it is so the tombstone does not wear out over the years by sticking the metal rod directly into the foam and accentually protects the foam tombstone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the tombstone are given a coat of flat black paint as under coat.  Then a light gray coat of paint is sprayed onto the top of the black coat.  By putting the gray on top of the black the wording on the tombstone will show up well and does not require going back and individually painting each letter black by hand.  With the gray coat you want to spray it on very lightly to allow the black to seep through the gray paint giving the tombstone a much order look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished look of a few tombstones to the right.  You can see how putting the a light coat of gray paint allows the black to show through giving the tombstone an a aged look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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