Dash is our Australian Shepherd. He’s 3 1/5 years old but has been with us only since last February when we re-homed him.
To commemorate Dash’s first Christmas with us I made a plaque with his image on it. (OK, it’s an image of an Ozzie that I found on the interwebs). Here are some photos of the project as it progressed.
I started by importing the image into Carbide Create and designing the toolpaths for my CNC machine. I made 2 toolpaths for the head, first a pocket cut with a 1/8 in endmill followed by a contour cut with a 1.4 mm endmill. The groove around was made with a contour cut with a 1/8 in endmill. The letters were made with a 90 degree V-bit.
After sanding, I applied a coat of shellac to seal the wood to prevent bleed-through during the next stage.
I mixed up some clear epoxy and added some black acrylic paint then applied it liberally to the carving, making sure to fill all the spaces as seen above.
When the epoxy had set for 72 hours, I put the work on the sander to remove the excess epoxy and the shellac. Once back to bare wood, I sanded the remaining epoxy with 400, 800 and 1500 grit sandpaper to bring back the smoothness.
I cut a keyhole on the back with my table router and added my logo (not shown) with my CNC machine. I finished it up with a couple coats of polyurethane on the front and one on the back.