I don’t post most of my work here simply because it’s pretty mundane stuff. Same techniques other people are using but different subject, size or art so nothing really interesting.
But my youngest son’s birthday was yesterday and he’s a dedicated foodie who loves messing around in the kitchen. He’s also a sci-fi and Star Wars fan.
I decided to repurpose my Millenium Falcon clock design file from a few years ago and use it to make him a serious cutting board.
I sized it so I could just fit it into the GF for the engrave, expanded the outline a qtr inch and sent that through Vectric’s VCarve Pro so I could cut the board on my CNC (Onefinity Journeyman for anyone who’s interested). I got the Onefinity last year to replace the Shopbot because it has a 48" wide bed.
Next came a board glue up so I could get a 12x18x1.75" chunk of wood. That went into the CNC to be cut to shape. I considered doing the engraving using a v-bit but the VCarve simulations didn’t look like that was going to give me the resolution I wanted so I went with the GF as initially planned.
After cutting out the Falcon (it’s about three-quarters to an inch smaller than the starting slab) I sanded it with an orbital hand sander and my bench top spindle sander from 80 to 220 grit. I figured I’d want it smooth before engraving because I wouldn’t want to lose the engrave to aggressive sanding and to help my masking to stick.
Then I took the slab and the cutout board to the GF. The slab provided me with a readymade jig that I could just drop the cutout back into. Figured I’d I messed something up I could use it to help get my alignment right for a second run. I masked the Falcon so I could run a very low power score of the cutline to get it aligned.
Lined everything up in the GFUI, ran the low power score, nailed it first time and removed the masking. Then I ignored the cut line, repeated the set focus, and ran the engrave. For some reason I hung around watching it for 2 hours. I must be letting the reports of rogue head movements and fires get to me. Typically I’m much more casual about unattended long engraves 
I oiled the board first with a soaking in food grade mineral oil and then four coats of a mineral oil/beeswax mixture buffing between coats. That gives a nice soft looking, but hard finish. Labeled the back with a removable “Cut this side” P-Touch label and sent it off to the birthday boy.
If course he decided to take a few days vacation and is out hiking this week so his present is (hopefully) awaiting his return.
) - because surely someone will try to steal it from him!