Cutting Bd Work in Progress

Pete Simmons

Member
Messages
546
Location
Melbourne, FL
I guess laser cutting is flatwork so I will post this.

In another thread we started talking about lasers.

Here is my current project.


Cutting board made by our own Vaughn M. then sent to me for a little laser inlay work.

I was going to wait till I finished this but decided to post now to answer some questions.

The name and date are glued in and rough sanded. The red Kokopelli is sitting up on a dowel so you can see it is not yet inlayed.

Next cut the recess for the Kokopelli, glue it in, sand it down and finish.

Vaughn makes some beautiful cutting boards!
 

Attachments

  • Kokobd7.jpg
    Kokobd7.jpg
    36.8 KB · Views: 91
Name and Date

The name and date were done a little differently. This method works good when you have small pieces to deal with.


1. Raster engrave the cutting board.

2. The text. In Corel - place a black box around the text. Change the text to white. Mirror image the text and engrave it on a contrasting wood.


This gives you the raised backward letters on a thin carrier of wood. Add glue, press into the cutting board recess. Let dry. Sand away the top wood carrier off the text.

I still need to work on an easy way to align this prior to clamping. Any ideas?
 
Hi Pete,
You are bringing an interesting additive to the forum which works in nicely. Hopefully you will continue to keep us abreast of your projects and "Stories of "THE BEAM""!:eek: :rofl:
Thanks, Shaz
 
Pete, that looks great. This is certainly good information to have. Nice to see forum members collaborate.

I agree that Vaughn has made some very fine boards...and your laser work sure does add a nice personal touch. I just hope this is not a surprise gift for Jessica & Andrew...if so, maybe they don't know about this forum......:p
 
The name and date were done a little differently. This method works good when you have small pieces to deal with.


1. Raster engrave the cutting board.

2. The text. In Corel - place a black box around the text. Change the text to white. Mirror image the text and engrave it on a contrasting wood.


This gives you the raised backward letters on a thin carrier of wood. Add glue, press into the cutting board recess. Let dry. Sand away the top wood carrier off the text.

I still need to work on an easy way to align this prior to clamping. Any ideas?
That is a brilliant solution. No more "wet spaghetti" when the glue hits the inlay material. ;)

On the alignment question...does the laser give you any kind of indication where the design is going to start on the substrate? Or do you just know it's X distance from a corner?
 
Good Idea

Yes it is a good idea, but not mine. I got it from a laser head on a laser forum.


---


Yes, I know exactly where the mirrored image engraving will start. I would like to use a couple of index holes/markers but I cannot mark my base material.

For now I just cut the thin carrier back to where it is just touching a letter on 2 diagonal corners. Line those up and the rest will follow. Is is just that I am not sure until it is to late ie. after glue dry and sand to see where everything set up.


----

I have some ideas for some very complex inlays using this method.
 
Oily Cutting Boards

A few photos of the finished cutting boards soaking in mineral oil.

Vaughn - Yes again you made some beauties. Nice grain in all the wood but the maple is especially nice.

Thanks for making these possible.
 

Attachments

  • sunbd1.jpg
    sunbd1.jpg
    53.8 KB · Views: 17
  • kokobd1oil.jpg
    kokobd1oil.jpg
    55.5 KB · Views: 16
Oooooh! I just knew that maple would come to life under the oil. :clap: The inlay looks great on both, too. Great job, Pete. I'm sure they'll both be well received. :thumb:
 
Top