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On our last trip to visit my wife's folks in Alabama, my FIL showed me a poster online of the "Indian Ten Commandments". He has a bit of an interest in native American lore because his mother was 1/8 Cherokee. Although history states otherwise, he believes the commandments are old as the hills. In fact, there is no record of such until 1989 when a company created a poster to add to their offerings. In any case, I thought making a plaque would be a good CNC project, so here it is.
I re-sawed cherry board and book-matched the pieces. The overall finished size is about 14" by 9". I created the design in VCarve Desktop. The text and graphic was cut using a 22.5° 1/8" etching bit at a DOC of .01" and 50ipm feed rate. The border texture was done with a 1/4" ball end mill at a DOC of up to 0.1" and feed rate of 100ipm. The final cutout was done with a 1/4" spiral downcut bit at a feed rate of 60ipm at 1/16" DOC increments to clear the 1/2" material.
The photo below is a close up of a corner showing the texture that gives the panel a natural edge look.
Finish is two coats of sealer, two coats of clear gloss and one top coat of satin - all Target waterborne products.
And, of course, I had to add this little bit to the back of the plaque using the same etching bit at a DOC of .02", then filling the cut with black Transtint in water before the last top coat.
Thanks for looking!
EDIT:
Forgot to add a detail about the text and chief. After the engraving, I sanded off the nubs and filled it a mixture of white acrylic paint; I added a couple of drops of TT brown mahogany for the text and some black TT for the chief.
I re-sawed cherry board and book-matched the pieces. The overall finished size is about 14" by 9". I created the design in VCarve Desktop. The text and graphic was cut using a 22.5° 1/8" etching bit at a DOC of .01" and 50ipm feed rate. The border texture was done with a 1/4" ball end mill at a DOC of up to 0.1" and feed rate of 100ipm. The final cutout was done with a 1/4" spiral downcut bit at a feed rate of 60ipm at 1/16" DOC increments to clear the 1/2" material.
The photo below is a close up of a corner showing the texture that gives the panel a natural edge look.
Finish is two coats of sealer, two coats of clear gloss and one top coat of satin - all Target waterborne products.
And, of course, I had to add this little bit to the back of the plaque using the same etching bit at a DOC of .02", then filling the cut with black Transtint in water before the last top coat.
Thanks for looking!
EDIT:
Forgot to add a detail about the text and chief. After the engraving, I sanded off the nubs and filled it a mixture of white acrylic paint; I added a couple of drops of TT brown mahogany for the text and some black TT for the chief.
Last edited: