cutting board engraving

[Rob Young]

Good friends of girlfriend are buying their first house. She wants to give them a house warming gift and since I have a few end-grain cherry/maple cutting boards on hand, viola'! Gift.

But of course it must be customized. Debated with her a bit on what to do and came up with a nice simple engraving that can be put into say the lower left corner and probably filled with black epoxy. 

Did a test cut last night using my Shaper Origin in some BBply because it was handy. I don't think I have any end-grain off-cuts but I'll look around tonight. I should do at least one more test cut in end-grain just in case.

This test came out fine. This was the first time I tried using a brass bristle brush to scrub over the engraving. Did a fantastic job removing fuzzies and bits down inside the letters. Saw somebody do that in a video, can't really give more accurate credit because I've now forgotten whose video.

1/8" and 1/16" 2-flute bits did most of the hogging out to a 1/16" depth. Then went back in with a 0.8mm (1/32") bit to tighen up corners and such. All bits are "Holzy" brand (spelling?) I got through Amazon. Cheap but still carbide. Did a fine job if you are patient with them.

About 2" tall by 6.5" wide. Final version will be slightly bigger, about 7" wide. This size was just a good fit to the scrap material for my test.

   

Edit to add, layout done with Inkscape 1.0 and the Celtic Knot came from the The Noun Project. The Noun Project is pretty useful and many "icons" have a dual pricing schedule. Free for personal use or you can pay a small fee ($3 in the case of this knot) and have full rights to use in commercial applications.  The Shaper Origin uses SVG files and Inkscape is a good way to generate them.

[joe1086]

Ok, that there is pretty cool!

[stav]

Very nice.

How do you apply the epoxy in your work pieces?  My grandfather did that kind of stuff with a laser back in the 90's.  He had some sort of thing that would burn the epoxy into the work piece.  I don't recall the specifics of it.

[Rob Young]

Very nice.

How do you apply the epoxy in your work pieces?  My grandfather did that kind of stuff with a laser back in the 90's.  He had some sort of thing that would burn the epoxy into the work piece.  I don't recall the specifics of it.

Plan is to use syringe filled with the dyed epoxy. Probably going to use Alumilite (there are multiple kinds, one of them is marked as Food Safe on the box and it's one you can get cheaply at craft stores in small quantity). Last time I used the stuff I recall it being a bit on the thinner side. 

Build a small dam with tape to keep things under control and fill in the spaces best I can. Gentle heating with heat gun so as to not splash it everywhere. Surface tension of epoxy should let it rise just above surface. Then scrape and re-sand. 

Betting I need to do twice to fix any misses or bubbles or whatever. 

This is something I should test in a scrap of end-grain because I've not filled end-grain this way before. Potentially I could paint a bit of shellac down in there to seal up grain so things don't weep and look fuzzy.

[BrokenOlMarine]

Plan is to use syringe filled with the dyed epoxy. Probably going to use Alumilite (there are multiple kinds, one of them is marked as Food Safe on the box and it's one you can get cheaply at craft stores in small quantity). Last time I used the stuff I recall it being a bit on the thinner side. 

Build a small dam with tape to keep things under control and fill in the spaces best I can. Gentle heating with heat gun so as to not splash it everywhere. Surface tension of epoxy should let it rise just above surface. Then scrape and re-sand. 

Betting I need to do twice to fix any misses or bubbles or whatever. 

This is something I should test in a scrap of end-grain because I've not filled end-grain this way before. Potentially I could paint a bit of shellac down in there to seal up grain so things don't weep and look fuzzy.

Look forward to seeing pics of the end result.  I made a half dozen cutting boards last year as Christmas Gifts, and they were well received.  That is a nice touch.  Haven't done the epoxy thing yet.  LOML has been after me to try it on a small scale so I can follow up with one of the "river" coffee tables. 

[Timberwolf]

Look forward to seeing pics of the end result.  I made a half dozen cutting boards last year as Christmas Gifts, and they were well received.  That is a nice touch.  Haven't done the epoxy thing yet.  LOML has been after me to try it on a small scale so I can follow up with one of the "river" coffee tables. 

..............................
I make my black epoxy fresh each time I need it using JB Weld and the black "soot" from a candle flame that is held under an old table spoon..Just a very small amount of the soot is scraped off the spoon, and is enough to turn the epoxy jet black and it polishes nicely. The soot is pure jet black carbon...and it mixes well with clear epoxy also.

[stav]

How do you spread the JB Weld?  I haven't used it in a while but I remember it being a little thick.  Although not as thick as what I wanted for the application I was working on.

[Rob Young]

Started my epoxy fill test.

Got some Alumilite resin and dye. Mixed up about 20ml and dribbled it into test cuts.

One test cut is my bbply as above. 2and is some cherry end grain. May require a 2and pour on that as it soaks in. Wanting to test bleed factor. Might need to deal with very light clear pour first, then fill.

And now we wait...

[Rob Young]

Started my epoxy fill test.

Got some Alumilite resin and dye. Mixed up about 20ml and dribbled it into test cuts.

One test cut is my bbply as above. 2and is some cherry end grain. May require a 2and pour on that as it soaks in. Wanting to test bleed factor. Might need to deal with very light clear pour first, then fill.

And now we wait...

Wanna guess what happened with the Alumilite casting resin and engrain cherry test... Slurp! All gone. I could have guess that result but wanted to see what would happen. Can't imagine endgrain hard maple would be any different.

I'm re-testing that on a fresh cut that was sealed with dewaxed shellac this time. Now I'll add the casting resin and check it in 24 hours.

The plywood sample was fine with what appears to be minimal spider webbing around the letters. In this case, the endgrain runs perpendicular to the engraving so I'd expect to see a little bit of material bleed in that direction. It wasn't quite hard enough yesterday afternoon to start scraping it back. Hoping that tonight it will be hard enough to scrape.

[stav]

Maybe you need to add some of that cya super glue to the routing first to seal the pores. I don't know how you would polish it but it makes a nice finish on pens.  I don't know that it would be food safe though (if the board is intended to be used).