Custom clock
Aligning parts for a custom 22" diameter clock project:
The customer provided a very good quality pdf of this logo. I used paint.net to break it into several different parts in preparation for V carving. This was necessary for a few reasons, one of which is that the logo has both very wide and very narrow strokes. The narrow strokes are best carved with the 60 degree V bit, but the wide strokes need the 90 degree V bit to avoid double-pass carves. I used free software to convert the customers black-and-white image into glyphs to create a custom font for Centerline Text. For example, the "and", "K & J", the grouping of dots, and stars are all separate characters in this font. The font software and the newer font engine in Designer 3 did not get along, so I used Designer 1.
The design was split onto the three boards in a way to minimize the requirement to match up carvings. For example, none of the stars or dots are spread across two boards. The center board is 14.5" wide. I overlapped the carvings on each board a bit, then precisely trimmed with the table saw to fit. To get the outer circles to match required very precise cuts. Since it is much easier to trim and clamp square boards together for gluing, I did not use the cutout tool, but cut the outer circle only .25" deep. I will cut the rest with a hand-held jig saw and finish with a router trim bit once the glue has cured.
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