Two weeks in and it’s already paid for itself. Ty Ryan.
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I’m impressed with your business acumen. Two weeks is pretty quick to find clients and make enough projects to pay off a cnc assuming you have a normal day job.
Nice job! All of them look great. I especially like the “adventure awaits” 
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Facebook had a lot to do with it. I’ve been posting the build along the way and friends reached out to me. I do have a day job but the wife hasn’t seen me in a couple weeks lol.
Those look awesome. Did you use a CNC before or are those your first projects as well?
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I second that, they look amazing. 
Could you write more about how you created these?
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I’d hate to talk smack on another company but I have a Bobs cnc V3. It’s always been junk to me and I’ve made a few signs before and messed around with other things. The whole reason I built this LR3 was because the wife wanted me to make a sign for my son’s treehouse I just finished and I was really unhappy with the way the sign turned out. I built the LR2 a few years ago and never really got it to work correctly (I was having problems with the controller I was using). I pulled the LR2 out of the box I had it in and came back to the V1 website and seen the upgraded LR3 model. Needless to say I used the parts from my unfinished LR2 to build the LR3. its night and day from the Bobs CNC. I’ve also got a MakerMade M2 that collects dust in my shop.
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The flags aren’t to difficult. I use Vcarve Pro so I don’t know how this goes with Estlcam but just use any good flag vector file and then any image you want for the “badge” side, convert that to vectors and create a vector boundary around that image to give your flag stripes some distance away from the image. Then I snip the vectors on every other stripe to only cut out 6 of the 13. (I hope that makes sense because I’m confused now).
The wood I’m using is 1x12 edge glued poplar. That I spray with shellac then enamel spray paint. Let the paint cure for a couple days then carve into it. .05” depth of cut on the stripes with a downcut bit and a flat bottom of .2” for the vcarving.
The other signs, the vectors were bought from Etsy for a few dollars each. And cut on 1x12 edge glued acacia board. If you live by a Menards those are super cheap and mill surprisingly well. After the carving they were sprayed with a couple coats of shellac then black acrylic paint and a small paint brush to fill the engraving. Once that’s dry I sand the surface to remove any unwanted paint I got on top and leave a crisp edge. Then shellac again.
Hope that helps.
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Yeah, a lot. I am not good with paint, for me it’s mostly oil and paste wax. 
Have to try shellac some day, who doesn’t want crushed lice on his wood. 
Ha ha ha. I had never used it before but I needed something to dry fast for an undercoat. I might switch to a spray lacquer. But the shellac is working. My first few signs I noticed the paint soaking into the wood fibers which I didn’t want so I knew I needed a clear undercoat. The enamel spray paint has helped a bunch. I was using rustoleum 2x but noticed it was too flexible and would tear rather than cut/chip away.
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I recently applied shellac using these applicator pads and the liquid/can version of shellac
HDX HDX 5 in. Microfiber Terry Staining Pads (4-Pack) HDMF-SPWHT - The Home Depot
I cut the shellac with some denatured alcohol to thin out the coats a bit since I was using it as a finish, but you could probably just use it straight. It resulted in smoother finish for me and still dried fast. I imagine it’d be cheaper than spray paint shellac over the long haul as well. Store the pad in a jar of shellac or denatured alcohol and it can apparently be re-used many times.
Cheaper, faster application, and I think similar drying times.
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Ty for this. I was just looking at flakes and a reusable spray can on Amazon. Will try your method. It’s like $10 a spray can. Quite expensive
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Flakes and applicator pad would probably be the cheapest I’ll be interested to hear how it works for you.
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Okay, you built a tree house, your wife is super cool, and you now prefer your LR3…I do not think a cooler sentence could be written.
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lol. Thanks Ryan. She’s been dealing with a lot with this whole project and has been amazing. Speaking of my projects, and since I have you. I’m thinking of building a MPCNC strictly for laser purposes. I have these spare stepper motors from other printers and projects. Will they work do you think? Or should I just drop $50 on the bigger steppers?
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A laser does not have any resistance in wood, so I guess it should easily work. Switching them later also only takes a couple of minutes, so it doesn’t hurt to try.
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That’s what I was thinking.
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Those are 48oz/in. They will work. If you have any issues, lower your accels and increase the overcut/burn.
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I could use some advice. I’m currently printing the parts for a MPCNC to put a laser on. Then I thought maybe I could just slap a laser on my LR3 that’s set up for CNC routing. I couldn’t find anything on the forum that could answer this. Is it easier to put a laser on my current LR3 with a jackpot and I could seamlessly just use both or would I have a hard time? I was reading and seen you need to change the .yaml file for laser use and I think this would be a pain to change back and forth. Would it just be best to build the MPCNC and use it for a dedicated laser machine? Also do you have an Amazon affiliate link to any lasers you recommend?
Same board either can use a laser just the same.
Super easy, just keep both yamls on teh board and make one change and you are loaded.
I don’t, I have had mine for 5+ years, sure they do not sell them anymore.
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This seems nice if you already have a way to add air assist (low pressure air, i use a compressor set to super low psi).
I have never used this laser so the Amazon return policy is a good safety net here.
Amazon.com You will still need a power supply.
5.5W is good for etching, minimal slow shallow cutting.
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