I have been working on a plaque for a friend. His wife passed away a few weeks ago. His wife had bypass surgery and then 3 days later had a stroke. She spent months in rehab and then got a diagnosis of stage 4 kidney cancer.
My friend supplied the wood and was helping me but his pacemaker battery went dead and he had to have it replaced yesterday. When it rains it pours.
The plaque is made of rosewood. I designed it in CC and cut it on my Shapeoko 3 XXL with HDZ. He wanted it finished with OSMO Hard Wax Oil. The OSMO brought the rosewood grain to life. In the center is a laser engraved piece of 1/8" Baltic birch. His wife had written that letter long ago. It was mostly a CNC project but I cut the ovals 1/8" undersize and used a router to rabbet out down to 1/8" on the front side. I got some glass cut to fit the pattern I supplied the glass company and the prints were given to me by my friend.
We were trying to emulate an antique mirror his wife had and I made a separate hood to go over the top. I cut out a prototype from a 2x6 pine board to test the fit. Originally I found an image of a mirror on google. However the picture was slightly skewed which made the curve non symmetrical. So I took the outline and made a box half the size and did a boolean and then reversed the image so both sides were symmetrical. I glued some 1.5" rosewood that was 18" x 5" and cut the hood out with tabs. I was afraid that the hardness of the rosewood and the 1.5" deep cut the painters tape and glue might come loose. I just finished sanded the piece and wiped it off with mineral spirits to remove any dust. I will apply the OSMO tonight and tomorrow will glue and screw it on the plaque. The picture below has the 2x6 prototype on top and not the rosewood.
This was the plaque with acrylic paint on the flowers and the text. The grain of the rosewood was so pronounce on the flowers I had to get the air brush out and spray them. The text was done with an 1/8" round brush.
So I am going to try to deliver this to my friend Christmas morning. His family is coming over at 12:00 and want them to see it finished. My Friend wants me to make 15 of these in total. I have enough wood for 6 and then we will need to switch to cherry or something else.
Sometimes we dont know how lucky we are. He lost his wife and then had to have a pacemaker replacement all right here at Christmas. I listen to a radio show and they say all the time:
If today was your last day what would you do?
So I would recommend that you treat each day as if it is your last and act accordingly. You never know when your last day is.
