cutting board engraving

[Rob Young]

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).

That's a possibility. But I think the shellac (I didn't get around to mixing up more Alumilite last night, maybe tonight) should work.

And two bonuses, I already have some superblonde de-waxed on hand and it is generally considered food safe. This I can just slather on a few coats and seal everything in the area before applying the epoxy. 

And the board is intended for use. If this works, I have some ideas for charcutere boards. Those would be long-grain so easier to deal with.

[Rob Young]

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.

So finished my testing of sealing the endgrain with shellac before pouring the epoxy and I think it worked fine.

   

I've scraped down and sanded to 220. You can see there is still a bit caught in the endgrain. The test had two coats of shellac spaced about 10 minutes apart. Why 10 minutes? Because that's how long I waited, nothing special. I think a better result would be to do the two closely spaced coats followed maybe 8-10 hours later by another coat. Maybe 2.

I didn't take another picture, but wetting the surface with water, the little bit of black trapped in the endgrain around the engraving just vanishes. The cutting board is maple and cherry. I didn't have a piece of scrap to test so I'm just going to hope it doesn't make a huge mess of the maple.

[Rob Young]

And done.

The key seems to be sealing up the area with shellac (dewaxed of course) first. I did three coats giving at least an hour dry time between. Then waited until the next day to mixup and pour the Alumilite. It is listed as a casting resin, a polyester resin I think. It mixes equal parts A and B so mixed up 20ml total and added 20 drops of black resin dye. The dye was a gestimate after making my other tests where I used 10 drops in 20ml and it seemed a bit gray. This is black.

I think the polyester resin will stay just a tad bit flexible as compared to the other kinds that you see used in waterfall pours and structural stuff. 

Got out the card scrapers and worked it off including the shellac that hardened on the surface. Sanded to 220 and slathered on a mixture of beeswax and mineral oil I like to use on cutting boards. That I make up in a double boiler. 50:50 by volume more or less. Seems to work well and smells nice. Soft hands as a bonus too.

Hard maple and cherry.

   

   

   

[BrokenOlMarine]

That looks great, I see moist eyes in your future. 

[gov.cheese]

I enjoy seeing the capabilities of the Shaper Origin

[stav]

Love the board and the engraving.  Great work.

[AHill]

Nice job. Maybe next time make the field for the engraving all one type of wood. Also, keep in mind that the epoxy is not going to be very kind to cutlery, if they actually use it as a cutting board. Maybe a smaller engraving closer to the edge.

[crokett™]

That's a very nice cutting board. A suggestion for filling in your engravings. Years ago I had a sign CNC carved. The guy put something like adhesive shelf paper over the wood and carved through it. He shipped it with the paper still on it, I was easily able to paint the lettering and then peel the paper off. that might work for your projects.

[Rob Young]

That's a very nice cutting board.  A suggestion for filling in your engravings.  Years ago I had a sign CNC carved.  The guy put something like adhesive shelf paper over the wood and carved through it.  He shipped it with the paper still on it, I was easily able to paint the lettering and then peel the paper off. that might work for your projects.

Oracal Oramask is commonly used for such applications, yes.

[Rob Young]

Nice job.  Maybe next time make the field for the engraving all one type of wood.  Also, keep in mind that the epoxy is not going to be very kind to cutlery, if they actually use it as a cutting board.  Maybe a smaller engraving closer to the edge.

I'm betting this doesn't get used much as a cutting board...

The type of epoxy used is a casting polyester resin. To my calibrated durometer fingernail, about as hard as HDPE.

This was the last of three that were made up as plain cutting boards about a year ago. Two cherry/maple and one all maple. Recycling at its best, used scraps to make and then recycled the finished product to make yet another version.