Made a little tote for Mother’s Day and thought I’d share.
I used
-PF hardwood Maple for the top and sides
-PF med. draftboard for the bottom (could use hardwood too)
For the handle:
-I placed a large sheet of PF in the bed and used magnets to hold it firmly in place so I could use it as a jig.
- In the file, I placed a square around the flower bitmap to make it easier to engrave both sides. I engraved and cut out the square, then flipped it over and engraved the other side. Next I placed the handle cut lines over the square and cut it out. (I found that engraving the whole square made it easier to get it lined up with the handle, but YMMV and you may not need to do it this way.)
I played with a few different versions of the box, so don’t be confused by the duplicate parts of the file. I included them just so you have some options. Just set the parts you don’t want to use to “ignore”.
-There is a bitmap of just the flowers and another version with the flowers and stripes.
-I also added score lines for a colored version. Using masked PF material, set the score to full speed and I think I set power to about 4. Just enough to barely cut through the masking. (Eeek, I forgot the exact setting!) Then cut out the square around the score lines and carefully lift it out of the jig.
-remove the masking where you want to paint.
-once dry, place the square back into the jig and engrave it. Keep in mind that using a high LPI and a lot of power will eat away most of your paint. The less power and LPI you use, the more color will be preserved. (FWIW, using SD setting ate away most of my paint.)
-I adjusted for kerf and the fit can be tight. The fingers may need a little sanding to fit. (Mine went together with just a bit of hammering though.)
Mothers day box kittski.zip (1.8 MB)
(download the above zip ^, this is just an example of what it looks like.)
