Making a Custom Rustic Valentines Heart Box

Making a custom rustic Valentines Heart Box is a pretty simple process, consider this blog post a proof of concept for your own custom CNCROi.com produced box!

As its Valentines day, I decided to make a custom box in the shape of a heart, the same concept can be greatly simplified or complicated depending on what you want CNCROi.com to make for you.

From design through final production, every aspect of this project is made to your custom specifications.

As CNCROi.com specializes in CUSTOM, the material, shape and size can be anything, if you wanted this box out of expensive Mahogany or a specific shade of Corian or even out of old plywood or crate material, we can make it for you!

Additionally, if you wanted this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box to be in the shape of a triangle, square, complex geometric shapes across many differing layers and axis, we can do that too.

As you can see, the engraving can be any font at any size, I chose this font as it suited the job but as we make these all on-demand, if you had hundreds of boxes all with individualized personalizations and fonts, that’s no problem for CNCROi.com.

Now that we have the infinite options we can offer you when it comes to custom box production, let’s focus on this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box!

In this case, we used whitewood, it’s very easy to work with, sands very well and has rigidity to it that woods like basswood don’t but it has a similar lightness when compared to heavier woods like Oak or Walnut.

The first step is to design the box to fit the board we had in the shop, after the design is optimized for the material dimensions of this wood, the thickness and engraving that I wanted to put onto this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box.

“Love doesn’t make the world go around, love is what makes the ride worthwhile” is what’s being engraved on what will soon be the cover of the custom rustic Valentines Heart Box.

This is pretty thick wood, but our Austrian CNC laser has no problem cutting through it, personally, I prefer to make my projects with character, as you’ll see, if there is something that catches your eye, that’s what I’m after.

If you wanted a bit more sturdy box, we can make that as well, the above box was made using this same material, just a different design for a completely different application.

You wouldn’t want a rustic Valentines heart box in back of your bike anymore than you’d want a rear bike custom wooden box given received for Valentines!

Some people and customers like imperfections, like knots and burn marks on their custom work, others don’t but at least with CNCROi.com, you have a CHOICE as everything is made on-demand to your spec!

As this wood is very easy to work with, I didn’t bother masking the front, only the back (you’ll see why later in this blog post) so on the surface of this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box, you can already see burn marks where the wood density is higher than other areas, same with knots.

This is why I like whitewood for some of our projects, even if this looks burned to a crisp, it’s only on the top upper surface, not all the way through, so it’s quickly sanded away. This custom rustic Valentines Heart Box will have both character and look great once done!

As our industrial wide-format CNC laser can be opened up in the front and the back, there is no need to “cut the board to size”, just feed it through to do the work at hand.

CNCROi.com used this same approach for this Whitewood Egyptian coin bank which I also designed, it just has a bit more complexity to it but essentially, the same design approach as this rustic Valentines Heart Box.

Being able to feed board through saves CNCROi.com a lot of time (you money) and makes production very efficient as everything is done seamlessly, engraving through cutting.

CNCROi.com has a powerful laser, as a result, there is a constant flame shoot straight through this wood, this is why there is a contrasting color on the edges and in the video, you see flames shooting out every once in a while.

Because this is thick whitewood, even after a piece is cut by the laser, it generally stays in place because there is enough friction between the cut-off part and the scrap material to keep it there.

It’s looking a little rough but nothing a quick sanding can’t fix, this is one major advantage of wood, it can be easily cleaned-up and this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box is no different!

Here are all the individual parts layed out.

Engraving is at top and the two hallow pieces fit the middle part with the solid heart making the base of this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box.

Time to stick them on my custom laser cut downdraft table I made earlier for a sanding and assembly. If you are wondering, it was made out of MDF and just like this rustic Valentines heart box, entirely CNC laser cut.

Like MDF, whitewood is just as easily cleaned-up and as it has plenty of thickness, can be sanded down time to time to refresh it, that’s why the engraving was done to some depth and I left this project unfinished without any sealing.

You can see how rough the back side looks, the masking will take care of most of this but some of it is burned straight through, hence needing a bit of a sanding.

You can see how much the masking saved in time above, after a quick sanding, the custom rustic Valentines Heart Box will look perfect with this smoke and resin totally gone!

Here’s what the front looks like, pretty clean but it can also use a light sanding.

After cleaning-up the pieces, it’s time to glue them together. If you are curious as to how much detail we can make the box to have, here’s a great case study for you, the question mark below could have just as easily been entirely transformed into what you see here in this rustic Valentines Heart Box.

There is no need to put screws or nails into this work, this isn’t a box that will see a heavy-duty life, it will sit on a desk for most of its life.

Remember, we want the lid to COME OFF, so it isn’t part of the glueing of this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box.

Here’s what the engraving looks close-up, again, I like knots and material variances in my personal work, that’s why I chose this material to begin with, if you don’t like this kind of stuff for your application, let us know ahead of time and we’ll make the work without them.

Through the magic of blogs, the glue is now dry, the box is sturdy and well bonded together to form a great looking custom rustic Valentines Heart Box.

You can see the knot came off on the left of this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box and there is some deeper colored grain going along the top, I personally like it! If you are wondering what the contrast would be like using other types of wood, check this out.

The little heart inside of this box is what holds the lid perfectly in place for the heart shape, it’s like a rudimentary key and is more there for esthetics than to keep people from getting into it.

The small heart comes right out, it’s also made-up of a two-layer glued part, which is why it has enough depth to go into this box and still come-out pretty flush on the top surface of this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box that CNCROi.com made.

At an angle, you can see the wonderful sharpness of the inner heart, this wouldn’t be possible using our industrial American CNC router which is why I chose to use our Austrian CNC laser instead but if you want a lot of boxes like this made, design depending, CNC router is definitely more cost-effective and efficient on this material.

Having the inner heart means it’s relatively easy to put the lid in the correct position on this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box. Each wood as a plus and negative, like any material does, it’s knowing which works best for a given application and budget that’s the tricky part.

You don’t want a tight fit though, as this is wood, unfinished, you want to give it room to expand and contract with varying humidity, something that is of no concern if we made this out of Acrylic, Corian or a to a lesser degree harder wood than whitewood.

As for the knot you see in the photos, the heat of the laser roasted it and as a result, it popped right out, I didn’t bother cutting another one as I like this, when things are too perfect, they look boring, this is free character being added to the custom rustic Valentines Heart Box which makes it unique!

Another thing I didn’t do was sand all the edges flush, again, I like things to be imperfect, but if CNCROi.com‘s client wanted this to be flush, we’d make it so after the glue has bonded, keep in mind, this darkened edge would be gone but again, it wouldn’t be there at all if we used our CNC router.

Here’s another look at this custom rustic Valentines Heart Box, looks rustic, looks like a Valentines present, in the shape of a heart, and is a wonderfully sturdy box. Mission accomplished in my eyes!

Of course, if you wanted this box with an inlay that was red, acrylic would make a wonderful choice.

With CNCROi.com, you aren’t stuck with building a whole project out of one material, we can easily mix and match to suit your needs and branding ideas!

You’ll notice a slight burn mark in the upper mid-part of the small heart, one side had this, the other didn’t, but I decided it looks cool so I put that part on top for these photos of the custom rustic Valentines Heart Box.

Do you want a custom box? Contact CNCROi.com right now!