Gave unfinished 3,2mm Baltic birch my first spin to create a spin-locking gift box for holding a customized votive for my son’s study abroad “abuela” when we go pick him up from Seville.
Modifying and ornamenting atop a basic purchased plan gave me ability to take from inception to in-hand in about 4.5 hrs. Besides some Sevillan-esque motifs I carried over from the customized votive (that goes inside), I added the finger tip cut-outs on the lid to make it easier to lift. They abut right to the lock design when you spin it open.
The lock itself is made from PG Walnut and Maple Plys to coordinate with the woods used for the votive inside. The birch box was given a fast, light sanding with 400 grit and sealed with a quick-dry Krylon satin gloss spray.
I had seen the suggestion to work from the PG Maple Ply settings-- and while the birch cut like butter the smoke flash was stronger than I liked. I found that running 2-passes at S225/P98 I could contain smoke flash better, especially on the underside, while still cutting through.
For scoring however, even tweaking down a little from PG settings to S150/P20, they still got a little too dark where the lines were a bit too close. So more work is needed on score testing if I modify the design for any other gift boxes in the future.
But as for engraving, tweaking down the settings to S800/P90/195 I was able to get very little smoke shadowing.
And naturally, working from the PG Walnut and Maple Plys for the votive itself, all printed up smooth as a Spanish sangria.
