I made this sign for my sons room using the 30x30 longmill and Easel Pro by inventables. I face laminated recycled pressure treated deck boards in the herringbone pattern onto a 1/4" plywood substrate. I used the inlay generator on easel to inlay 2mm into my board so gluing/ lining up the letters would be as easy as doing one of my sons puzzles. Then I cut the letters out of 5/8" MDF and spray painted. I finished it off with rabbeting a frame so the panel would drop in from behind.
My learnings: When cutting all the way through, cut a hair more than you think. I spent a good hour cutting out the letters that didn’t quite penetrate though with an OLFA. Seal the edges on freshly cut MDF if you plan on spray painting, that stuff is a sponge. Lastly, take you time and enjoy it. Don’t get too stressed over the hiccups along the way as I did.
This experience was great to learn from so I can pass on the knowledge to my students!
One thing about cutting through; another approach is to zero off the spoilboard, then set an Z offset. I used to add a few thousandths to the cut dimension and it worked well, but, of course chewed up the spoil board. Since zeroing off the spoil board, it is like new.
If you are interested, go to Peter’s youtube channel CNCNutz and search on spoil board.
Great learning and words of advice to share. I’m sure your students will love the knowledge that you pass on to them, and definitely remember that one of the most important things is to have fun!
First off welcome to the community! Second, nice work! That looks super clean! I will second your advice about sealing the edges of mdf before painting. Keep having fun and just remember you don’t learn anything by being perfect all the time!
@thompson.rtj Very nice, I have found using Lacquer Sanding sealer, a couple of coats make MDF much more manageable prior to paint or finish of any kind. The brand I use is from Minwax and depending on your location is sometimes difficult for shipping. Also I saw a video on youtube where the person used small dowels, some like tooth picks to help locate the letters CLICK here to view it…
