What to do? Custom order

I received a large slab (17x40x2") from a friend to engrave as a wedding present for his daughter. He gave me permission to cut it if I have to but I would like to avoid that if I can. How can I set this up to use the full size of the slab?

What machine do you have?

If your machine will handle the width not the length, you may have to slide it in running another file to cut the remainder. Be careful of the knots they eat bits for breakfast.

The search term you want to use is “tiling” or indexed cutting.

I would recommend:

  • sourcing a piece of MDF or other inexpensive material for a test cut
  • photographing the piece and using that to work up a template file which includes the image of the wood as a background so you can work around/incorporate the knots into the design
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If you end up doing a tiled cut because your machine is not large enough to cut the entire piece at once, you should fasten it ( tape and superglue maybe? ) to a flat, square piece of wood, so you have a straight edge to slide against the reference edge ( fence ) when moving it for the next cut.

To get an idea of the cutting area, and what your carving would look like, you could place it flat on the ground, place a ruler on it ( for scale ) and take a photo of it looking straight down, then import that into whatever you use for laying out your design. Then, if you want to follow the edges ( with a generous edge margin ) you would know where those edges are instead of just having to use a rectangular area that is within the bounds of the narrowest point of the slab.

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I have a Pro XXL. I am still a newbie only doing this for about two months now.

I like the idea of trying this with scrap wood first so I don’t ruin his VERY nice slab…

I have not done tiling, yet.

Thanks everyone. I’m prepping for this cut and will let you know how it works in the next week or so.

Can’t mess this up.

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