I’ve been working on this 15"X9" walnut sign for the last couple of months. While I have had some setbacks along the way, it mostly took that long because I’ve been out of town.
This is a piece of walnut from the scrap pile that I carved on the CNC router at the shop. Then I filled it with resin.
Carving
I went through the carving process at least 3 times. I was having trouble getting good carve consistency between the V-bit carve and the cleanup toolpath (1/4" bit).
I also tried different V-bit angles and settled on a 45 degree bit for the final carve. In the process, I learned what happens when you program one bit angle in and actually cut with another angle. You get grooves of uncut lines like in the picture below.
Resin
The original plan was that the sign would be V-carved and then painted in the carved out area (like the first picture above). But, since I was not getting clean cuts and a smooth bottom surface, I decided to fill the sign with the white resin.
I think that came out pretty nice.
Construction
The walnut that I eventually used on the final carve was a re-sawn and book matched piece. It was flat for the carve and for a few days after. But, because it ended up about 3/8" thick, it started to cup over time. I decided to glue it to a 3/4" piece of plywood to keep it flat. But, that meant I needed to do something to cover the plywood edges.
My wife had recently built a floating frame at the shop to frame some of our daughter’s art. And that got me interested in doing the same for this sign.
Another piece of walnut from the scrap pile at the shop became the frame for the sign. This made the sign less sleek, but really made a much better project I think.
The sign sits a little below the surface of the frame. After market testing (my mom was at the shop when I was figuring this part out), it was decided that sitting a little below the height of the frame would look best.
Finish
The finish is boiled linseed oil and paste wax. After mounting the sign into the frame, I then used the laser to sign and date the sign.
I’m looking forward to giving this gift to the young couple that I made the sign for.