Dog Bone Shaped Plaque

A whole make video of this project, including design, cutting, painting, and finishing, is available on youtube. Have a look for details!

Also, see Stephanie's blog post about this project here: "Crafting In The Rain":http://www.craftingintherain.com/2015/08/carved-dog-sign-with-x-carve.html

Estimated time: 12 minutes

I used double-sided carpet tape to secure my walnut board to a piece of MDF I had clamped down to the X-carve work surface. This MDF will keep the bit from cutting into the original wasteboard when it cuts all the way through the walnut.

Estimated time: 1 minutes

Be sure to change the dog's name on the project to your dog's, or to the recipient's dog's name if it is a gift! Then follow the simple Easel instructions to set your origin and carve it out. The holes at the top are for hanging.

Estimated time: 8 minutes

We're going to paint the carved letters. But if you just slap some paint in there, it will bleed into the wood grain of your workpiece and you won't get crisp edges, and it won't sand out. So we need to seal that woodgrain. Here, Stephanie is coating the letters with simple clear shellac. Go over the edges a bit onto the top surface, so you can paint over the edges later too. That will make sanding it off easy.

Estimated time: 2 minutes

In our case, we wanted pink letters for our girly dog. Pick your color, and coat inside your letters. Try to go over the edge a bit all around, so you will get crisp lines after sanding. This is why we did the shellac first! Two coats if needed.

Estimated time: 2 minutes

Just for a little accent, we painted some clear glitter paint over the pink. A little sparkle never hurt anyone!

Estimated time: 2 minutes

This is where the shellac sealer pays off. Now we simply sand the surface of the sign, using either a simple sanding block, a random orbital sander, or even a sanding drum if that's your machine of choice. We went with an orbital sander, with 320 grit sandpaper, and it cleaned up the surface down to bare wood in just a few minutes. If you sealed the endgrain with shellac, you won't have any paint residue!

Estimated time: 5 minutes

We chose to finish it with clear gloss spray lacquer. 4 coats done, drying in between, and then a light sanding (to knock down any dust or whatever) and then a final coat of lacquer to be nice and smooth.

Yes, you can use lacquer, especially in a spray can like this, over paint. Latex or acrylic. Because the solvents evaporate so quickly, it is unlikely to cause your paint to bubble. Don't soak it or let it puddle on the paint, though, as it could ruin it with prolonged exposure.

And that's it! Hang it on your dog's crate, or food dish, or dog house, or wherever you want! We just used black zip ties through the holes at the top to hang it up.

Estimated time: 120 minutes