Columbian Squires logo
I have a friend who is starting a local chapter of the Columbian Squires. The Squires are an international fraternity of Catholic young men, Founded by the Knights of Columbus. My friend wanted to know if I could make a plaque of the squire’s logo, on my CNC router. I told him that I would give it a try.
Carvewright software
I find the Carvewright software to be rather basic, so I drew the logo up in AutoCAD, then exported it to an STL file. I imported the STL file into the Carvewright software, then created the image you see above. I sized it to be as large as the carver would allow, about 14.5″ tall. The next step was to create a panel to carve it into.
3 pieces of maple
I pulled a couple of maple boards from my stock pile, and cut them to about 24″ long. The carver likes an additional 3″ minimum on each side of the carve, so I needed a minimum of 21″, I made my pieces a little longer so I could plane them down and not have to worry about snipe ruining any of the boards.
Ripping down the maple
I ripped them down to the desired widths, then ran them through the planer, to clean them up.
Planing the boards
Applying glue
I applied wood glue to the edges and started clamping them up. It appeared that the center board had a slight bend to it, so I clamped the right side first and worked my way left counter-bending the center board until it was flush, then clamping it in place.
Clamping from right to left
All clamped and drying
I also clamped the offending board on the end to prevent it from shifting as I clamped the sides. After about an hour, I pulled the clamps and scraped off any glue squeeze-out with my 2″ wide chisel.
Cleaning up glue squeeze-out
Cutting the ends square
I trimmed the edges square on my sliding miter saw, then loaded the board into the Carvewright and started the carve.
Loading the board into the Carvewright
3-1/2 hours later
3-1/2 hours later the program finished, and I removed my board.
Fresh off the CNC
Buff sanding the fuzzies
All the little fuzzies that were left behind were sanded down with my buff sander, mounted to my drill.
Cutting the plaque square
With everything cleaned up, I cut the plaque square on the table saw.
The finished logo plaque
I am not sure what finish is desired so I am going to turn the plaque over as is. I will let my friend paint, stain, or finish however he sees fit. I will post an update if he sends me a picture of the finished product.
If anyone would like a copy of the Carvewright file or the 3D STL file, just shoot me an email at lwroten@midnightwoodworking.com
Midnight Woodworking 
Looks fantastic! Wow!