Shop update #441 (4-22-26)

I received a last minute request for a plaque for an Eagle Scout Project, as in, we need this in 2 days.  I had some knotty pine and some poplar on hand, neither of which is ideal for an outdoor plaque, but it was all that I had on hand and could work with right now.  We came up with a quick design and it took 2 hours to laser etch into the wood which is 15″ x 7.25″.  It finished up around midnight so I left it for the next night after I got home from work.

The next night, I was able to sand it and give it 3 coats of a spar urethane.

I left it to dry overnight and then gave it a light sanding with some 220 grit to smooth out all of the nits in the finish.  They were very happy with what I could come up with in such short notice.

Jimmy Diresta released a video about make some “cast iron” shelf brackets out of scrap plywood.  It looked interesting and I could use a few shelves in the shop so I tried my hand at making a test bracket.

I made the top of the rear support too long and had to trim it down on the bandsaw.

My CNC machine can cut the design on the inside of the line, on the line itself, or on the outside of the line.  You can only pick 1 way to make the cut.  It turns out that the way I made the design, it needed to be cut on the inside of the line for the interior parts and on the outside of the line on the exterior parts.  I went ahead and programmed it to cut on the line as a compromise and it is loose at every point.  This was a good proof of concept and now I know what I need to change to make it cut like I want it to.