Christian Nativity Scene: Gold Enameled

This custom Christian Nativity Scene with gold enameling was made by CNCROi.com to give you an idea of what we can do here in the shop using a variety of materials and processes regardless of material, shape or size.

If you think the above Christian Nativity Scene looks like lots of work and steps (which it is), there is a more cost-effective solution to produce a custom plaque that’s roughly the same color scheme though nowhere near as much presence or WOW factor.

This Christian Nativity Scene starts life as a piece of metal to be cut using CNC waterjet, it’s a high pressure system that uses water and fine sand to cut any shape, size or thickness of a variety of materials that our CNC laser can’t do cost effectively.

Generally CNCROi.com‘s custom wall plaques are made out of wood, lamacoid or metal but it’s rare that we get the opportunity to make something like this Christian Nativity Scene where multiple materials are applied together.

Cutting out the Christian Nativity Scene from the metal sheet is a pretty straight forward project and as you’ll soon see, the tolerances with one CNC machine are essentially the same with others and as such, doing a mix and match is quite easy.

Now that this Christian Nativity Scene is finished being cut using CNC waterjet cutting, you can see how rust is already starting to form on the right edge, this rust will quickly take over the entire scene if it isn’t cleaned.

The cleaning process with our industrial sand blaster remove any impurities including rusts and stains on the metal, providing a wonderful surface for the later gold enameling of this Christian Nativity Scene.

Other options when it comes to “metal” are lamacoids, they replicate the metal surface and the related core contrasting, it’s certainly more cost-effective and a lot more labor but it’s also a very different look and feel.

Here’s a before picture where you can see the rust already starting to take over the Christian Nativity Scene, that isn’t sand from the sand blaster but rust forming.

And after sand blasting it, you can see a nice matte grey finish free of any rust, this can be left like this for days if not weeks depending on the environment and rust will not form on it.

After the CNC waterjet portion of the Christian Nativity Scene is finished, it’s time to put a piece of old growth plywood into the CNC laser, it’s time to engrave a nice contrasting background on this custom plaque.

CNC laser engraving is a time-consuming process but it’s incredibly accurate and the surface of the plywood is what we’ll use to adhere the metal Christian Nativity Scene that we CNC waterjet earlier.

Another option when it comes to custom wall plaques is paint filled CNC laser engraved Corian, again, very different look and feel but just as amazing looking in its own way.

The reason for the CNC laser engraving is to create not just contrast to the soon to be gold enameled Christian Nativity Scene but to also create depth so shadows and other details in the wood grain can become clearly visible.

CNCROi.com did this engraving in two passes, first pass is more of an engraving than a darkening (burning) of the wood and the second pass more of a burning than an engraving.

You can see how wonderful the grain pattern is on this piece of extremely old plywood, it’s really beautiful free details that our Austrian CNC laser is revealing that you’d never guess was they’re using any other method of production at CNCROi.com.

The first pass is now complete, you can see how wonderful the Christian Nativity Scene engraved into the plywood looks, this is the same design we used for the CNC waterjet except it has the text.

CNCROi.com is also able to make dimensional Corian plaques, as you can see, we offer a large range of production methods to make what you want to match the application you have in mind.

Now that the first pass is complete at CNCROi.com, you can see the contrast created right away when our CNC laser passes over the same area the second time at a different focal point.

If you look at the text and the plywood around the Christian Nativity Scene, you can see the smoke build-up along the edges that will need to be sanded.

The very bright light that you see in these photos from the CNC laser is actually vaporized old growth plywood, there is smoke but a lot of it is instantly vaporized by our laser on-site.

Additionally, CNCROi.com can also make live edge wood plaques, whether it’s a large 2″ thick Walnut board or a relatively thin plywood that we used for the Christian Nativity scene.

Now that the Christian Nativity Scene is done being engraved in the old growth plywood, you can see there is quite a bit of cleanup that will be required as no mask was used on purpose, it’s very hard to adhere to the surface of this very dry plywood.

Doing a test fit of the metal CNC waterjet cut Christian Nativity Scene over the CNC laser engraved plywood underneath is required to make sure nothing moved during production which sometimes happens.

Now that the test fit is confirmed, it’s time to gold enamel the sandblasted Christian Nativity Scene by CNCROi.com that was earlier CNC waterjet cut out of a sheet of metal.

Several coats of gold enamel are applied to the Christian Nativity Scene to give it a nice shiny result on the sandblasted metal.

Another popular option when it comes to custom wall plaques is solid Pine, with the advantage being very light weight and it’s pretty cost-effective to boot especially in large volumes.

Here’s a close-up of the Christian Nativity Scene, you can see how wonderful gold enamel looks fantastic but when this really shines is when light is used over it at various angles.

It’s now time to cut out the CNC laser engraved Christian Nativity Scene from the old growth plywood as we don’t want the custom plaque to be on a rectangular piece with all the associated scrap around the scene.

Above is before sanding, straight out of CNCROi.com‘s Austrian wide-format industrial laser and below is after sanding, you can see how the grain looks good on the surface but also understand how much better it looks after being CNC laser engraved.

The edges may look a little rough from our amazing bandsaw but that’s why we have a sander to finish-up the clean-up.

CNCROi.com also makes custom wooden wall plaques out of small live edge boards to suit any occasion such as weddings and corporate functions.

Just regular carpenter’s glue is used to adhere the metal to the plywood, the metal is very thin and small so the weight of the metal is negligible for this Christian Nativity Scene.

After a few hours, everything is dried together, you can now see how wonderful it is to have a mix of metal and wood on a custom wall plaque.

Here is the scene at another angle, looking great as the scene dances in the light while the text, not being metal, remains legible at all angles.

Here’s a close-up so you can see what the Christian Nativity Scene that CNCROi.com made out of plywood and metal looks like under matte light.

Need a custom wall plaque that’s any size, shape or material? Contact CNCROi.com right now!