Shamrock Welcome (Failte) Plaque

This is a free decorative St. Patrick’s Day shamrock welcome plaque project for your CarveWright machine!

It features a common Irish phrase “Cead Mile Failte” which means “100,000 Welcomes” in Irish Gaelic. It is pronounced “kay-ed mee-luh fall-tuh”. You can actually listen to audio recordings of the pronunciation of this, and other popular Irish phrases at: irish-sayings.com

The text can be carved as raster (as in the photo below) or as centerline if you own the CarveWright Centerline option. Free Celtic-style fonts are included with the project files for you to choose from, and you can even customize the text to say anything you wish! The finished plaque is about 10″ round and makes a nice entry door or wall decor greeting for your visitors!

Main items you will need:

1. The Project Files (free):
   • Shamrock_Failte_Plaque_Raster.mpc or
   • Shamrock_Failte_Plaque_CenterLine.mpc
2. Board with the following dimensions:
   • .75″ x 11″ x 18″
   • NOTE: Do NOT use a board that is smaller than specified above.
3. Two small woodscrews, and about a 5 length of gold-colored jewelry chain from any arts and crafts store
4. The specified free Celtic font must be installed on your system to match the layout (or you can use another font of your choice)
5. Wood stain and/or paint and clear finish
6. A Dremel-type rotary tool with assorted sanding wheels and bits to sand small details and speed up preparation for finishing.

STEP 1- Upload Project File(s)

Start your Designer software and open the mpc file of your choice (i.e., raster or centerline version). (Fig. 1a)

All you need to do at this point is upload the project files to your memory card. (File/Upload). When you upload, you may or may not get a pop-up window with an “Auto-Jig” warning message (Fig. 1b)

If you do see the message, you may safely click on “Ignore” because our actual board will be large enough that it won’t cause any problems at all. After the project is compiled, select “Best” or “Optimal” for the File Quality setting. (I recommend Optimal.) Click “OK” and upload the mpc project file to your memory card. Insert the card into your machine and load a board that measures the appropriate dimension specified for the particular mpc (see page 1 for board dimensions). Turn on your machine and proceed with the standard project setup in Step 2…

STEP 2 – Carving the Project

You will see “Project Menu” on your LCD display. Press “1” and scroll to the Shamrock_Failte_Plaque_Raster.mpc project, load your board (see page 1 for dimensions) and press the green ENTER button. Then follow the additional prompts….

• Stay Under Rollers – press 1) NO
  • DID YOU KNOW? If you’re using the specified board sizes, it doesn’t matter if you select YES or NO because those board sizes have the extra 7 inches of length that will keep the project under rollers either way. See 7 inch rule for further explanation
• DO NOT RESIZE or SCALE the projects! If prompted, always keep the original size. No scaling!
• How To Place – press 1) Center
• Cut Board to Size? – press 2) NO
• Select Cutting Bit: 1/8” Cutting – Press ENTER. The machine will move the bit holder to the center of the machine in preparation for the bit installation.
• Load Bit:1/8” Cutting – Insert your 1/8” cutting bit, then press the green ENTER button. (homes, etc.)
• Select Carving Bit: 1/16” Carving – Press the green ENTER button. (Moves to center of machine.)
• Load Bit: 1/16” Carving – Remove the 1/8” cutting bit, and insert your 1/16” carving bit, then press the green ENTER button. After homing and finding surface, the machine will begin the carving process.
• After it is done carving, you will be prompted to load your 1/8” cutting bit. Take out the 1/16” carving bit, clean the chuck, insert your 1/8” cutting bit, remove excess sawdust debris, then press the green ENTER button. Cutouts are always performed last, after all carving is completed.
• The machine will now proceed to perform the cutout as it moves around the component outline. It leaves little tabs to hold the part in the board. When the machine is finished, remove your board and clean your machine of excess sawdust.

If you have the Centerline Text add-on module, you can run the Centerline version* instead, the setup procedure will be a little different, as follows…

At the “Project Menu” Press “1” then scroll to the Shamrock_Failte_Plaque_CenterLine.mpc, load your board and press the green ENTER button. Then follow the prompts carefully.

• Stay Under Rollers – press 1) NO
  • DID YOU KNOW? If you’re using the specified board sizes, it doesn’t matter if you select YES or NO because those board sizes have the extra 7 inches of length that will keep the project under rollers either way. See 7 inch rule for further explanation
• DO NOT RESIZE or SCALE the project! If prompted, always keep the original size. No scaling!
• How to Place… – press 1) Center
• Cut Board to Size? – press 2) NO
• Select Vector Bit: 90 degree V – Press ENTER. The machine will move the bit holder to the center of the machine in preparation for the bit installation.
• Load Bit: 90 degree V – Insert your 90° V-bit, then press the green ENTER button. (homes, etc.)
• Select Cutting Bit: 1/8″ Cutting – Press ENTER. The machine will move the bit holder to the center of the machine in preparation for the bit installation.
• Load Bit: 1/8″ Cutting – Remove the V-bit and insert your 1/8″ cutting bit, then press the green ENTER button. (homes, etc.)
• Select Carving Bit: 1/16” Carving – Press the green ENTER button. (Moves to center of machine.)
• Load Bit: 1/16” Carving – Remove the 1/8” cutting bit, and insert your 1/16” carving bit, then press the green ENTER button. After homing and finding surface, the machine will begin the carving process.
• After it is done carving, you will be prompted to Load Bit: 90 degree V. Take out the 1/16” carving bit, clean the chuck, insert your 90° V-bit, remove excess sawdust debris, then press the green ENTER button.
• The machine will now proceed to perform the centerline ‘Cead Mile Failte’ text V-carve.
• After the V-carve, you will be prompted to load your 1/8” cutting bit. Load Bit: 1/8″ Cutting – Take out the V-bit, clean the chuck, insert your 1/8” cutting bit, remove excess sawdust debris, then press the green ENTER button. Cutouts are always performed last.
• The machine will now proceed to perform the cutout as it moves around the component outline. It leaves little tabs to hold the part in the board. When the machine is finished, remove your board and clean your machine of excess sawdust.

Your board will look like this (raster version shown). (fig. 2)

STEP 3 – Separate Parts from Material

Separate the carving from the board with a utility knife or hobby saw (fig. 3a)

Sand the piece by hand and/or use a Dremel-type tool to remove any fuzzies and undesirable tool marks. I use various Dremel bits as well as 3M Radial Bristle Discs from www.mcmaster.com to safely remove fuzzies from carvings without loss of detail. (fig. 3b, 3c)

STEP 4 – Finishing

Apply stain/paint and clearcoat of your choice. Here’s what I used on my Shamrock Welcome plaque made

from Select Pine: – one very light coat of thinned Bullseye Sealcoat (2 parts sealer/3 parts Denatured alcohol)

• sanded again with very fine sandpaper
• painted inside of small shamrocks with light green acrylic craft paint and inside letters with a darker shade of green paint using a small artist’s brush (fig. 4)
• applied a Cherry stain overall
• applied several spray coats of Krylon clear acrylic

STEP 5 – Adding Hardware

After the finish is dry, use the screw hole guide to mark the position of the screws on the back of the plaque. (fig. 6a)

Cut the gold-colored decorative chain to about 4 or 5 inches in length. (fig. 6b)

Attach the chain to the back using two small screws to finish the project. (fig. 6c)

IN CONCLUSION

I hope you have had fun with this St. Patrick’s Day project! Make a couple more as surprise gifts to present to your Irish friends!

Michael Tyler of CarveBuddy.com!