Jackson Five Sign

Instructions

Setup: - I simply clamped a long strip of the material to a spoil-board, with an equally-thick stack of plywood ahead of it for tape. However, if your piece of maple is already roughly the length of the final piece, you could use double-sided tape instead. Cutting: - Engrave the letters in pocketing mode using a 1/32" cutting bit. Then switch to an inside cut on each letter to finish them. - Create the border by following the inner rounded rectangle at a depth of about 0.1" (or however deep you think looks good. - Cut around the perimeter of the sign with a 1/4" cutting bit. I left 0.01" around the edges and 0.05" in depth as a final finish pass. If you start near a corner, you'll be able to clamp the piece down before it fully releases. Finishing: - Spray-paint the face of the sign to color the letters. I'd recommend masking wherever you can to minimize sanding later. - Once the paint is dry, sand down the face with an orbital sander. - Finish the sign with a water-based polyurethane finish, sanding between coats. Note: Some of the paint made it into the grain of the wood, and we weren't able to sand it out. In the future I'd like to experiment with ways of sealing the surface first to avoid this.