Finish suggestions?

I have had my x-carve up and running for about a month and decided to do a special plaque for my sons baseball coach. Unsure how it would turn out I opted for th

e $13 plank of some species of pine I believe instead of the Walnut or mahogany etc… Now that my plaque is carved I cannot decide how to finish it. Tung oil, stain, laquer, or just urethane. So here I am asking for some input.

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First. This looks excellent. For the finish it depends on what look you are trying to achieve. Danish oil or linseed oil does very well with Pine. You could stain first with a color you like. Test on sample wood first then spray lacquer to seal the project.

No finish ideas, but that looks great!!

Thanks! I think I may slap some oil on it and call it a day. Not bad for my first 3D 2.5D whatever you want to call it. I did notice when I resized the project for final dimensions I forgot to hold shift so the baseball is a little oblong but not to noticable head on. It seems worse in the picture.

My only concern would be my glueup. It did not turn out as seamless as I was hoping. If you look you can see a line just right of center. Since oil brings out the grain donyou think the line would be more noticable?

Hard to tell from the picture but I do not believe the seam will show more with the oil unless there is a significant gap and I do not see it at all

Post pictures of the completed project

great job! what size font did u use in the middle what bit did u cut that with?

Coach McMeen was a 60 deg 1/2in V bit
2017 was a 90 deg 1/2 V bit
The boys names was a 30 deg 1/8 in v carving bit
Roughing pass I used 1/4in 2 flute straight bit.
3d pass was I think 1/8 ball nose 2 flute
All of wich were purchased from inventables. So far I have been happy with their end mills/bits but have not tried any of the real small ones as I have been afraid of breaking them untill I can dial in my feeds/speeds. Vcarving and roughing seems to be perfectly fine at 100ipm. With the combo of 100ipm and .05 z height I have been impressed at how fast this thing moves.

I actually paused the 3d pass 3 times due to my kids sports and work (took two days in total) I Can not say enough good things about the new UGS Platform (Nightly build)

If that’s a glue up, you did a fantastic job.

Table saw jointing jig is super easy to make and works like a charm! I have a bench dog cast iron router extension table with the incra router lift and still to this day have not had a flawless jointing experience. Maybe its my subpar bit? My router fence even has metal inserts specifically designed for jointing. Oh well, maybe one of these days I will have room for a real jointer and the all mighty drum sander.

Wow that is beautiful!! I would love to try making that. Good job!!

Nice work. I’ll be borrowing the bits, feeds and speeds for some of my projects.

Just a little update I went with a tung oil finish. I think next time if I use this wood I will stain and topcoat. It did not turn out exactly as planned but the coach and kids loved it so im happy.

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