I purchased the copper numbers from Amazon and got to work on deciding how I wanted to lay them out. I cut some simple baltic birch 1/2 plywood to the basic shape to create a backer board and primed/painted it black. I then bought some walnut boards and cut/planed them down to size and spaced them out about 1/4" apart and screwed them in from the back of the plywood. Next I added some walnut strips as a frame around the edges.
The trickiest part was measuring out where the drill holes would be to mount the copper numbers would go. Each number had two spikes on the back with plastic anchors. These drill holes had to be precise, so lots of light pencil lines and precise measuring had to take place. Once I was sure they would be centered and spaced, I drilled the holes on the drill press. Then I ran the entire block through the drum sander a few times to make sure I was flat and smooth all around.
Because there was an existing tile house number plate that was fixed to the brick — and I decided that removing it would cause too much damage to the home — I fixed an aluminum plate to the back of the new project that hooks into original plate. A few test fits and some tweaking here and there, it was time to finish.
I finished the wood with 3 coats of Danish Oil, and 2 coats of Spar urethane. Let all of the coats dry, and popped it into place. Hoping it will weather all storms for many years to come.
