Shop update #55 (11-14-18)

It was super windy at my house this weekend so I decided to work on a couple of CNC ideas that I had.

I was searching the web for Harley Quinn ideas and came across an image of the Joker HAHAHAHA graphic and decided to modify it for my X-Carve CNC machine.  I outlined it in Illustrator and then imported it into the Easel software on the Inventables website.  I played with it to make it look best for the 12×9 piece of plywood that I have and set it up on the machine.  I came back 40 minutes later to a finished cut.  I then lightly sanded it and gave it a sealer coat of spray polyurethane.  I let that dry for an hour and then gave it a coat of black spray paint.

I let that dry overnight and came back to it the next afternoon and gave it a good sanding with 125 grit sandpaper on my orbital sander.  I blew all the sawdust of it with the air compressor and then gave it a good rub down with a tack cloth.  (I still hate the feel of tack cloths in my hands)

Once it was cleaned up I applied a healthy coat of Dark Walnut danish oil by hand, let it soak in for a minute, and then wiped off the excess.  I haven’t had good luck with wood stain on other plywood pieces but this one is significantly smaller so I figured that I would give it a try and was very happy with the result.

I also made another Tree of Life piece, in cedar this time, for another friend and a smaller version of the Scout Law plaque.

I got halfway through sanding on the Scout Law plaque and liked the look of it so I stopped there and gave it a single coat of spray poly.  It looks much darker in the pictures than it does in real life.  I plan to revisit it next week and see if I still like it.  If not, then I will sand the rest off and re-finish it.