CNC Stingray Keychain (Custom Keychain) Tutorial

I wanted to have a custom keychain made and I wanted to try my new mini CNC machine for it. I used basswood to carve basic shape of sting ray and UV resin for embellishments. Please see this video for build process and review of final product.

Using CNC machine I carved basic shape of stingray in basswood. I used 300 grit sandpaper to clean the design. Tail on main body (with wings) broke while CNC machine was cutting this shape and main shape rose up slightly. I replaced it with polymer clay. I have detailed it in later step.

I placed main body on a piece of sticky side of tape. I used some iridescent gift wrapping cellophane to get faux opal effect. I mixed some resin color in UV resin and added it to sockets on both sides. I crumpled iridescent cellophane and embedded on both sides. I used black light flashlight to cure UV resin.

Next I used some wood glue and glued both parts of body together. I used 300 grit sanding paper to smooth and shape the body. While sanding, remaining part of tail broke off too! :-)

After wooden tail piece broke off, I drilled a hole at base of body and inserted piece of stiff wire. Using some polymer clay, I modeled a tail and smoothed it over wooden part of stingray body. I used heat gun to bake polymer clay.

After further sanding, I painted whole body with acrylic pearl color. After three coats of this color dried, I added two layers of blue-green iridescent paint onto it. Once these layers completely dried, i covered whole body with thin layer of UV resin and cured it to glossy finish.

Last step was to add a screw on bail and a loop to attach to the body. Now this keychain is ready to be admired and used.

Thanks for reading. I have added my CNC GCode file as well if you want to use it to cut stingray body.