The Process: Our products start as solid pieces of select grade wood. We most often use pine because it is a soft wood that carves easily and is very affordable. All of our products can be made from any species of wood including hardwoods such as oak and cherry but at a slightly higher price. We have even made some custom products out of exotic woods such as zebra and purple heart so please feel free to contact us with your specific requirement at info@ajcustomcreations210.com After the wood species has been specified by our customers, we then plane the boards down to ensure uniform thickness and a completely flat surface for accurate engraving results. Then each piece is hand sanded, and sent to the CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) router. Each product is designed on a desktop using our CAM (computer aided manufacturing) software and programmed into our CNC router. For the actual carvings and engraving we use a Shapeoko CNC machine to achieve the level of precision and detail in our carvings. This process allows us to offer personalized wood carved products to our customers at an affordable price. Each piece is then hand stained, painted and clear coated. Why do we use a CNC engraver VS a Laser Engraving or Vinyl Graphics?

Vinyl Graphics You will see many products in the marketplace offering customized or personalized products using a variety of processes to achieve the desired results. Each process has it’s own advantages and drawbacks. Vinyl graphics are basically vinyl stickers that are applied to wood, plastic and metal surfaces. They come in a large variety of colors and they are able to achieve a fair amount of detail. The major advantage to this process is the low production cost. The machinery required to make these is very low cost and the materials is also very cheap to purchase. Vinyl graphics have been around a long time but with the relatively recent popularity of Cricut home vinyl cutters the customized vinyl product market has exploded. You will find vinyl on glasses, coffee mugs, T-shirts and many other home made products. Low production costs lead to very inexpensive products. The disadvantage is that they can appear very flat and and often don’t provide the appearance of quality that most people expect in their home decorations.

Laser Engraving Laser engravers are also relatively inexpensive to purchase and are capable of engraving on wood and plastics with lower end machines and cutting and engraving metals on higher end machines. The major advantage is the amazing resolution that laser engraving can achieve. The laser can be focused to a point that is so small that the resolution that can be achieved allows the reproduction of near photo quality black and white pictures. The major disadvantage however is that the engraving is usually very shallow and is always darker than the surrounding material because it is produced using a burning process.

CNC Engraving

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CNC engraving with a router is a great alternative to both of those previously mentioned methods. The level of detail is better than vinyl graphics and only slightly less than laser engraving. The depth of engraving is adjustable and the engraving can be painted or stained which results in a wide variety of visually appealing products. Another advantage is that the finished product is a solid piece of wood. There is no vinyl that can fade or peel. Although our business primarily focuses on engraving wood and plastics we can also machine light metals such as aluminum with our machine. This is why we chose to begin our business with a CNC router. We think it offers what most customers are looking for in personalized home decorations although we also produce all of our products in a cheaper vinyl alternative.