American Flag Project

Dear members of the carbide 3D community,

Good Evening. I am wondering how to create an American flag out of pine 2x4s’s. I would like the flag to include a wavy pattern and 50 engraved stars. However, I do not know how to piece together files so that when the 2x4s are joined a continuous pattern is shown. In addition, my machine is limited by a 16 inch by 16 inch cutting area as I own the Shapeoko 3. My mission is to sell the American Flags and donate the proceeds to charities which help veterans. However my goal is limited by my lack of CAD and CNC experience. Can anyone help me with my project? Thank you and have a great rest of your day. Stay healthy and happy.

Note: The flag size can be changed however in the end I would like to have a variation of bigger and smaller signs that people can hang on a wall or place on a desk.

Sincerely, Russell Francis

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An admiral project, but have a look on Etsy.com with a search for “american flag” to get some idea of what’s on there by other folks. Good luck to you.

This would be a sectioned off project like to tiling.

Basically, draw up and model the design at full size, then use a series of rectangles to define the area for each section.

For doing the model/design see:

The tiling may require some judicious arranging of the boards on the table and of the origin points in the file and on the machine. (I suspect you’d need to use all 3 along the left edge, and have a succeeding set of positions for the boards) — @fenrus did do a sectioning tool which might help.

Mount Hood volcano in 4 tiles <-- reference and examples of how to tile gcode

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Have you thought of just doing the blue portion with the stars one the cnc, then using conventional tools for the rest? I did that for one at my house and it worked well for me.

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Dear osu22,

This is exactly what I am looking to do! How did you accomplish this? Was it with tiling like other members of the carbide community has suggested? Also what tool did you use to achieve the wavy pattern. Thank you. Have a great rest of your day.

Sincerely, Russell Francis

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Sure thing Russell. I’ll try to give a quick run down of what I did and you can ask any questions that you have. I start out by doing something you could probably avoid since these things are rustic anyway, but I joint and plane the boards. Then, I get the 7 blue striped (I like to put the blue stain on the tops first) boards cut to size and use my double stick carpet tape to hold those down to the cnc table. I cut the stars on the cnc so I know where they are before I go back and rough up those boards between the stars. Now, when roughing up those as well as the rest of the stripes, I use a 4.5” angle grinder and some flap discs as shown in the picture below. I tried a few things but this was just one that I tried after walking through the aisles at Menards, and it is quick and easy. After roughing up, I usually go back over everything with a random orbit sander for just a few seconds to get rid of the “fuzzies”. I stain the red pieces, then it’s on to assembly. I glue up the blue in one chunk, then glue up the smaller section of the stripes in another. I do use a doweling jig for added alignment and a minimal bit of strength, but if your joints are all flat and square, this might not be necessary. At the end, I add some stand-offs on the back along with a French clear, that doubles up as a structural frame and for hanging it. I’m probably missing a few steps in there, but that’s the genera method I used. Sorry for the long winded response and let me know if you have questions. Took me a few hours to make, start to finish, but I think I could whip one out in an hour or two now.

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Dear osu22,

Thank you so much for your response! I don’t have any questions as that was a great response. I cannot wait to start making the American Flags on my Shapeoko and donating the proceeds to veterans. I will keep everyone posted on my process. Thank you again! Have a great rest of your day.

Sincerely, Russell Francis

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Anytime! Enjoy, and thanks for helping out with a great cause!

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