Giant Wooden Dog Tag

My Niece is getting Married soon, and I wanted to make her a gift. I came up with a Giant Wooden Dog Tag, since her future husband was in the Navy. I wanted to include the US Navy Seal, a Heart and Submarine.

I thought this would be the perfect gift, at least I know nobody else would think of such.

You will need:

CNC Router ( I have the X-Carve)

Cam/Cad Program ( I am using Aspire)

Hardwood ( I am using Maple)

Minwax Gunstock finish

Minwax Clear Gloss Finish

220 Grit Sandpaper

Very Fine Steel Wool

A couple of clean rags

Tack cloth

First I found a couple of pictures, one of a Sub and the Navy Seal. Open up Aspire and imported them and traced them.

Then I drew the shaped of the Dog tag, inserted the vectors from the pictures. Added there names and a hole.

Next I clicked on the 3D modeling tab. From here I made 3D shapes of those vectors, until I was satisified.

I am no expert at this, It took awhile until I got it right.

Now I made a 3D Roughing Profile and a 3D Finishing Profile.

With Aspire it will let you preview the carving, which is very helpful.

I loaded the piece of Soft Maple into the CNC Router, fasten it down. Inserted a 1/4" Endmill to do the Roughing cutout.

Note I went against the grain in this cut, I would recommend going with the grain.

I then change to 1/8" Ballnose bit, done some finishing with it, didn't like the look of it.

Made another pass with a Tapered .031 Ballnose bit, but this time I went with the grain of the wood. Much better finish.

Note I probably could have used the 1/8" Ballnose, going with the grain, but I choose to try the Tapered .031 Ballnose bit, too give me a little more detail and maybe less sanding.

I went over the entire project with 220 grit sandpaper and then went over with some very fine Steel wool, where the sandpaper couldn't get to.

Now make sure to wiped the project real good with the Tack cloth, to get rid of any sawdust.

I put a good coat of Minwax Gunstock Finish on it, let it set for a several minutes, then wipe off the excess.

Now let this dry overnight.

Note you could put more than one coat of finish on it, that would give you a darker color.

After letting the stain dry overnight, I sprayed a Clear Gloss Sealer on it.

Let that dry and you have a unique gift, guaranteed that nobody else has.

If you like this Instructable, check out my youtube channel, I post a new video every week. Click here for my channel

Thanks for reading my Instructable, hope this has encourage someone to think outside the box, we are only limited by our imagination.