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This is for my daughter's graduation. My apologies for the long read....It certainly took me multiple tries and a long time to create this. I used maple and walnut for the keys with black wood veneer turned sideways (the keys are 5/8 thick). The mahogany and walnut stripes are also 5/8 and were stack-cut on the Hawk G4 so the pieces could fit together when I separated them. I also used the veneer turned sideways to take up the kurf.... I made the ornament on top and the ones inside the box on my EX 21. I also cut a thin piece of walnut for the under side of the top since I didn't want the piano keys to show when you open it.. I polished it to a high gloss. The bottom was all walnut and I purple floxed the inside. The music box was a challenge since it came out of an antique powder box. 20240605_140234.mp4

Thanks to all. I checked with Frank and he said what you all have suggested. I must have printed my first patterns from Acrobat and just forgot. I'm old!

I am making a wedding present for a family member that will be finally using some of my slabs I have had for 15 years, LOL. I got a whole big stack of these that I got from my brothers mill several years ago.. before the big epoxy resin table thing really kicked off, LOL.. Anyway I've been sanding the edges down as they was really rough.. run through the planer to smooth it all out and now have sanded it down to 320.. I will be doing some small carving with the cnc on a small portion that will have the names and date engraved in. Wil be adding pin legs I guess is what you call them. Wife want it to be a nice gloss finish.. I've not really worked with epoxy but I do have a small amount that I intended to use on a different project but changed coarse on that.. However it's a very small kit and I'm not wanting to run out of it in the middle of this project either. I am more comfortable just spraying something on it but what? Also that epoxy that I do have is not a "thick" epoxy it's supposed to be gloss but not a thick glass type.. I think that's what the wife is kind of after.. I don't mind spraying several coats of clear to achieve the result she thinks she wants, LOL.. Epoxy is probably the real way to go on this but thought I'd ask more opinions from someone that maybe has been there done that.. I'd really like to "seal it up with clear before running the carve on the cnc.. that's typically what I do and then after the carve I paint it and then clear over the whole thing but I'm not sure that'd work with epoxy either. I wish I had taken a photo before I started planing and sanding.. you'd have a hard time knowing how beautiful this grain pattern really is.. I did several large planks.. some was way too big for the planer so I ended up having to surface them on the CNC and even had to "tile" it on there as some are 3 ft x maybe 5 ft.. all are nice looking but this is the one she chose so gotta go with what the boss says, LOL

Kevin, haven't you made some crazy glossy toy trucks? What did you use on them? I have used Osmo gloss which gives a nice finish. Make sure you wipe off the first two layers really well, then I put in a very thin final layer....there is a good article on fine woodworking in 2017 on how a guy did it on a walnut table top. I think it was the July issue...

Very nice project. I am sure it will be well received and treasured. All aspects look well done. A few years ago I made a piano music box to keep a pen in and it was alot of work for such a small project but I have alot of respect for your work knowing the effort needed to complete. Well done and thanks for showing.

my brother has been in woodworking and was a Rockler store manager. He told me to check "General finishes" out and try them on my wooden cowboy hats scraps. I tried water based general finished side by side with oil based finished from "General finishes" Arm R Seal is oil based wipe on wipe off. The oil based is so much better to bring the magic of black walnut. When I did the tiny feet drawers I tried the Osmo (oil based) hard wax. side by side with Arm R Seal. Both look great. The wax Osmo won't be as durable be it will make it feel like furniture polish. Kid toy safe. I also did this side by side on the recent feathers I did. All 3 feathers were different wood. I went with Arm R Seal because of the softer wood Butternutwood I wanted it to be stiffer. Osmo is very expensive but it does not need much. It is also considereal toy safe. Kids can chew on it.

This is gorgeous your daughter will cherish this forever

Arm R Seal or Osmo

I just took the PDF and imported to Inkscape. Deleted all the text. Including the sizes. grouped each box and moved to an 8 1/2 x 11 page and printed on my Lenmark laser printer and the boxes are exactly 5 x 5 and 5 x 5 1/2. I would assume it is your print driver. I have had issues in the past, so I saved the svg as a PDF and print from Acrobat Reader and it will show you what is printing exactly. I have been doing a lot of designs larger than 8 1/2 x 11 so I just select all the items and group and then export to PDF making sure I specify the selection (not the page). Open in Acrobat and use the poster feature.

I would use “Osmo” oil, if you want it shinny choose the glossy one and the more coat you apply the shinier it gets after the buffing. BTW a great piece of black walnut

WOW that is some slab of wood, can't wait to see it finished. The grain is beautiful.

Kevin, I have posted a few projects I have done using epoxy. But what you are asking is a very different use of epoxy and my experience does not apply. BTW, what kind of wood is that? It is a beautiful slab. Thurman

It's because your document is 11x17, which is too big for your printer. So I'm guessing your printer is scaling it down when it prints. If you go to File>Document Properties, you can see the size. The easiest way would be to just copy the stuff you want to a new 8.5x11" document and print that. I've attached a .svg that might work (depending on how your printer deals with margins) box.svg

Looking at your PDF, it looks like it's 11x17. So when it prints to 8.5x11, it is shrinking it down. You can try pullint it into Inkscape and just printing the sections you need.

WOW, that will certainly become a family heirloom. Magnificent work Marie, very well done. Marg

Lord knows I can’t change.

That really would make a great tattoo. You did a terrific job Charlie. Marg

Have you checked your printer settings? Many times your printer will have options like Fit to Page or something similar. If that is checked, it will scale your image to fit. You don't want that. Make sure you don't scale anything on the printer.

Ray, I've been looking at the pattern. Are you sure you got all three lines of the outside of the pattern (the squares)? If you only got the dashed inside lines it would print 1/4" short.

Charlie, thank you... Coming from you that is quite the compliment!....Veneer is tricky because they seem to vary in thickness so some fit great and others not so much.... especially when you are trying to fill in for the size of the wood that was removed by the kerf of the saw blade. It was a crazy idea anyway. Thank you again.

It is a rectangle. Use a pencil and ruler to make the copy the right dimensions for the perimeter by drawing a new rectangle around it 1/8" off set from the copy lines.. The internal pattern will be slightly smaller, but no one will ever know. No need to make it complicated. If you want complicated, since the pattern is supposed to be 5" wide and measures 5 1/4", use a reduction percentage in "transform" of: 5/5.25 x 100 = 95.24% Tom

Holy cow! That is fantastic, Marie! I really like all the sideways veneer. Makes everything pop. Wonderful!

So this I believe was meant to go on glass. I have done glass gilding with real gold leaf. I think this was the imitation stuff. Anyway, not meant for wood. It didn't really want to stay....would recommend sanding the wood to probably 800 grit before applying it. I bought the stuff awhile back...can't remember where I purchased it. This was pre-cut for this design...You use a small wooden tool to burnish it on. Thanks again!

I do, pretty tame one. My wife, Connie wanted one for her 50th birthday. I decided to get one with her. She designed hers, Faith, Hope, and Love. I've had more than my share of fights with the black dog of depression, which inspired mine. I don't regret getting it but the letters are bleeding together which is a bummer. I'm still glad I have it, mostly because it's part of our story.