Hi all! I’ve had my Shapeoko3 for a few months now, but have never joined in on the forums so I thought I’d share my latest project. Nothing complicated here, just having a little fun. I’ve recently gotten into Calvin and Hobbes, and have admittedly become a bit obsessed with them, so I thought I’d make a clock for my office featuring them. I used Easel for the design, since it made it easy to import the picture into the program, then used Carbide Motion for the carving. Made from Mahogany plywood and finished with Danish oil and General Finishes Java gel stain. I’m really happy with how it turned out.
looks great, David. Inspired by you, I’m building the same basic thing, but a little smaller. I cut it out on MDF tonight and the text is still legible, which is good. As a beginning woodworker, I’m wondering - how did you get the areas that were cut to be so much darker than everything else? Thanks
Thanks Eric! To get the darker stain in the carving is actually pretty easy. Just apply your stain over the entire project, and wipe off the excess from the top surfaces. The recesses will collect more stain, and won’t be able to be wiped off, so it absorbs more in those area’s, creating the darker appearance. I used a Gel stain on Mahogany plywood with an MDF core. Not sure how MDF alone will work, as MDF is pretty thirsty in general. Test it out on a piece of scrap and see if it works. Good luck!
