A friend of mind asked for my help making up some sings for an event he was working on.
He wanted a website logo made into a sign as well the websites mascots.
The sign I made out of 1/4" MDF, (3) 2’x4’ sheets from Home Depot, and a 1/8" down cut bit.
He original wanted me to do it as a single sheet with just cut lines that he could paint in. (sort of a paint by numbers style) But after looking at the logo I decided to do most of it as multiple elements, profile cut out, painted separately then glued together. I used a 45 deg v bit to cut the smaller groves in the letters.
I used VCarve pro to do the cut file, but easily could have done it in easel.
One trick I used with this was to cut the outline of each object into it’s lower level using a v-bit set to “on-path”. This way I had an easy alignment guide to position them so that everything lined up correctly. (I didn’t think to get a picture of this)
After painting:
The mascots were going outside to help direct traffic so I made one out of MDF and the rest out of some thin plywood I had laying around.
I am very happy with how these turned out.
I did discover that not all plywood is the same.
The first sheet I used I think I got from Michaels and carved wonderfully.
The second one I made out of some thin “underlayment” plywood and it carved terribly. The plywood was bowing badly, enough to dramatically vary the depth of the v-carved details. The veneer tore and the wood chipped when cut. Not a problem as it was being painted, but I won’t be using that plywood again.
