I play guitar for a young lady with an amazing voice and fantastic spirit, just very enjoyable to be around. So I decided to make something for her as a surprise.
This is a plaque I designed in CorelDraw and exported to Fusion 360 for cutting. I originally tried it as a trivet with the cuts going all the way through but the letters are too delicate and the tips broke off so I changed it to a plaque. I could have changed to a beefier font but I wanted this one.
But I didn't want just the plain background so I hand carved that with a scalloped look - that took three hours but I could have done it in two except I kept tweaking the cuts! I think it's worth it, though, and the end result looks really nice to me.
The plaque is Cherry, about 10" diameter, 0.60" thick, finished with Nitrocellulose sealer and semi-gloss lacquer, and Mohawk Van Dyke Brown glazing stain is used on the text to make that pop.
I'll attach a couple of photos but mainly this is the video with every step documented, something I don't do often. I've been asked a hundred times what are all the steps in making something like this plaque so I figured why not show it in a video; there's a lot more to it than many realize, especially if you don't do work like this.
Be forewarned, the video is 19 minutes long. Some sections and steps are at real time, some are sped up. There may be steps you'd omit and there may be some you'd do differently but this is what I do when I make something like this.
Oh, by the way, you'll notice I cut the background 'on' the CNC.
012 - Carved on the CNC.jpg
013 - Finished plaque.jpg
014 - Finished plaque, detail.jpg
David
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