Custom Retirement Plaque: Acadia Hardwood
Custom retirement plaques are fun to make, CNCROi.com makes them custom to your spec, any size, material or design option you can think of, no problem for us!
For this specific customer, we went through a few different wood options but the best bang for the buck was going to be Acadia, I have a lot of scrap pieces in the shop from redoing my kitchen countertops using this material.
After cutting the custom retirement plaque down to size, it was time to stick it in the laser and begin the engraving process using the design specs we agreed upon.
Simple or complex, just about any design looks great using wood.
I’ve done a few projects using Acadia and really enjoy using it, it’s an incredibly tough material, have a great weight to size ratio and for this custom retirement plaque, the contrast produced by the laser is awesome!
When it comes to laser engraving, CNCROi.com‘s laser is basically a huge expensive printer, this means any design you can think of, as long as it’s black and white, can be converted into an engraving onto anything you want, steel to wood, plastic to paper.
CNCROi.com can also make novelty dog bones if you wanted, again, any shape you want your wall plaque to be, we can make it.
But for sharpness and quality sake, make sure the design is a vector, so that everything is clearly legible.
You’ll notice that sometimes at CNCROi.com, I use masking tape to lessen the amount of sanding I must do and other times I don’t, it’s really a case by case scenario.
When it comes to wall plaques, CNCROi.com has made a lot of them using paint filled Corian, it’s a fantastic choice available in hundreds of color combinations.
For hardwoods, I find that sanding is so easy and doesn’t go very deep without a lot of effort, that more often than not, masking just isn’t required, but with softwoods like basswood, it’s a necessity otherwise you end-up sanding straight through your board in no time flat.
This custom retirement plaque engraved very well, the sharpness and contrast are great because all the font and images were native vectors, if they were bitmaps like jpgs, then it would be jagged upon closer inspection.
Regarding depth of the laser engraving, it’s about 1/16″ even after two passes, there is no need to go crazy deep with a custom retirement plaque because it isn’t something that needs to be filled and this also speeds-up production at CNCROi.com and reduces the costs to the customer as well.
You don’t need to use exotic materials to make a great looking wall sign, I use 2×4 remnants to make mine!
I’m not sure why you don’t see more Acadia wall plaques, it’s really a fantastic material to work with, it’s as hard if not harder than Walnut but provides a wonderful surface texture similar to a very dark Maple but with the engraving not being overly dark… it’s a more subtle result which works out great for this custom retirement plaque application.
CNCROi.com has been engraving custom plaques almost since inception across many different materials, out of all the options we can offer, I still gravitate towards wood, it has a certain warmth to it that really no other material comes close to matching.
The additional advantage of wood is that a few years down the line, it’s easily refreshed with a little light sanding and re-application of a surface coating.
Simon’s now out in the world but here’s a wall plaque I made when we first got out glimpse of him in the womb.
For this specific project, I decided to do another run of laser engraving in the first, just to up the contrast and go a little deeper into the custom retirement plaque, not necessary by any stretch of the imagination, but I just wanted to give the overall project slightly more contrast from the Acadia surface.
Once CNCROi.com finished-up the custom retirement plaque, it was time to sand off all the laser engraving smoke and resin stains over the surface.
Of course, if you wanted the branding iron look on your wooden plaque, it’s no problem, but for this custom retirement plaque, we wanted a sharp result.
CNCROi.com has lots of softwood, hardwood and dimensional lumber in stock to make just about anything fast and easy for your project.
As I rough cut the dimensions of this custom retirement plaque down to size, it needed to have the edges sanded in addition to the front and back.
I also added a slight 90 degree bevel to the edges, it’s just a small thing that adds a bit more aesthetics to the finished piece.
In the shop, I have a variety of signs made from a variety of materials, but I really like my Pine for the weight and high contrast it provides.
You can see the results after a lot of sanding below at CNCROi.com, the inside engraving won’t get sanded, hence keeping the contrast, but the surface of the custom retirement plaque will, and also become lighter as a result, thus creating the perfect contrast ratio for this job!
And here you go, the finished custom retirement plaque, this already looks great but now CNCROi.com has to make the beauty of the wood pop with a clear coat.
Painted wood also looks great for custom wall plaques, any amount of inlays and whatnots work great for CNCROi.com.
The clear-coat does three things, the first, it increases the contrast of the engraving itself, secondly, it gives the custom retirement plaque a lot more natural wood warmth and thirdly, it protects the surface from the environment.
Here’s a close-up of the FAA logo on this custom retirement plaque, looks great!
And from another angle, you can see the shine from the finishing affects the surface of the Acadia but not the rough engraving, further increasing the contrast and legibility of the plaque.
If you want a custom plaque to hang on your wall or that of another, contact CNCROi.com right now!