Well here is my first cedar sign that I have made to sell (first one was a gift) I bought a piece of 2x6x16’ cedar deck board, I cut them into 28" pieces, then I ripped those into 1 1/2" strips, and edge glued the panels up. I wanted a 28"x18" panel but my planer isn’t that big so I glued them into two 9" panels, then planed them to the same thickness then glued the two halves together.
So I set it up and started carving and got about 20 min into the carve and the x-axis lost some steps and started carving in the wrong spot essentially ruining the piece. Turns out I had a loose belt. I had checked everything beforehand. Everything but the belts (facepalm)
Glued up another sign and made sure to check the machine over (all of it) also a great tip I got from you guys, was before I started carving the second piece I gave the face a coat of sanding sealer and let me tell you, what a difference. I also so a shallow outline of my letters before doing the roughing pass and I had barely any chip out.
I did the sign in a few different stages, so I was able to check the machine in between passes. Customer was happy and I was happy to finally finish this one, but I did learn a lot on this one which I will carry forward on my future projects.
