Shop update #424 (12-24-25) last minute Christmas commission projects

I received two last minute commissions.  One was for custom Christmas ornaments and one was for a 31″ x 31″ wall hanging with 5 family names mounted on it in scrabble tile form.

A friend requested 21 ornaments.  15 Pickle Ball, 4 fat tire e-bike, and 4 golf.  I engraved and cut them out on my Falcon 2 laser.

The pickle ball ornaments have very thin pieces so I cut backer pieces for them and spray painted the background red.

I let the paint dry overnight and then glued them together.  Once the glue dried, each side of all of them got 3 coats of spray lacquer.

For the wall hanging, I engraved and cut out the Scrabble letters on the Falcon 2.  They are 3″ square.

I then went to Home Depot and bought a full sheet of 1/2″ sanded plywood.  I had them cut it into 3 – 32″ x 48″ pieces.

When they cut it, I asked them to go in 32″ from each side.  I took the center piece and cut it down on my table saw into a 31″ x 31″ square.

One thing that I have noticed is that the Home Depot 1/2″ sanded ply take stain very well.  This is Varathane Red Mahogany.

I also picked up some 3/4″ molding when I was at the store.  I cut it down into 34″ lengths, sanded it, and gave them 3 coats of black spray lacquer.

I cut some 2″ strips of scrap plywood and used them as reference to align all of the letters.  I used standard PVA wood glue to attach them to the plywood.

Once all the letters dried, I cut the trim pieces down to size and attached them using glue and 1″ brad nails.

I gave the back of the board 2 coats of spray lacquer and the front 4 coats.  This took up most of Sunday afternoon.

I let everything dry overnight in the shop with a couple of fans running on it.  Monday night, after work, I installed two D-Ring hangers and some picture hanging wire.  I had to watch a youtube video on the proper way to tie the wire onto the D-Ring.

I delivered the wall hanging to the customer on December 23rd and he was very happy with the final result.  He was also surprised at just how big 31″ x 31″ actually is.