If you need a file to make one of these flags yourself, CLICK HERE. I sell the plans for $1.
Ever since purchasing my Shapeoko, I’ve been building and selling wooden flags on a regular basis; It's actually how I paid off my machine within the first few months. From Military patches to Sports and Recreation, there’s no limit on what you can incorporate into a flag.
Other than the few people out there that argue this is somehow a violation of the United States Flag Code (I would argue against that), it seems that customers are willing to purchase these slabs of Pine for what turns out to be a fantastic profit if you market them correctly.
The flag I’m working on today is a donation to a local organization, Homefront Strong, and will include three (3) built in shelves that display Challenge Coins. Coin flags are an easy way to add value to your flags since not only do they serve as art pieces, but you’ve now added utility value. Here's how I make mine…
Starting off in my CAD program of choice, Carbide Create, I import my SVG File onto a stock size of 21” x 11.25” (¾” thick). I buy Pine 1x12’s from my local Big Box Store for about $19 and can get two flags out of them. If you scale down the dimensions of a flag so that its height is 11.25” (the actual width of a 1x12), the length comes out to about 20.5”. Since I like to leave ¼” on either end of the stripes, 21” x 11.25” are the final stock dimensions. This process will work with any sized stock, but I think this is the best size in terms of making the most profit.
Once flags in place, I’ll import whatever custom logo or image I want included in that design. If this wasn't a coin flag, I would normally place the image within the stripes, but since the shelves get in the way, I scale it down and place it in the union. From there, I start deleting the stars that intersect with my image and sometimes use the Boolean functions to merge or delete any vectors that get in the way. The Boolean tools take a bit of time to learn if your image is a complex shape and requires lots of edits, but once you play around within your specific program, it becomes second nature. Practice makes perfect.
To make the shelf dados, I incorporate pockets on the bottom section of the top, middle, and bottom stripes. The pockets will be .4” deep, the same length as stipes their nested in, and are ½” tall since I'll be using 1/2" stock for the shelves later on. You could add more shelves if you wanted to in the other stripes, but with this size flag, larger coins wont fit between them.
You my also notice that at each of the corners of these pockets, I added dog bones so that the shelves would fit correctly. Since round CNC bits can't carve square inside corners, this is necessary if you don't want to do copious amounts of chiseling and sanding later on. You will need a smaller diameter bit, I used a 1/8" Downcut, to reach inside the dog bones, but I'll cover that in a bit.
The last step is to add small, unconnected vectors, at the side, top, and center corners of the union so I can mark out where to stain my workpiece. You can see in the image above that only a small ~¼” vector is needed at each location. These three vectors will be selected as a contour toolpath, with no offset, using a 60 degree V-bit at .03” depth. I only want to scratch the surface with this toolpath, so its just visible enough for me to line up my tape in the next step.
With my first toolpath assigned, I clamp my workpiece to my machine. One important thing to note here is that most pine 1x12’s will have some sort of cupping. When clamping it down to your machine, make sure that the cup is facing up, so the clamps press downward on the edges your stock, making it straighten out a bit. This will help a ton with accuracy.
This is what that first toolpath should look like once its complete. You may have noticed the white plastic material screwed to my machine at the top of this image; that's a built in fence. You can get a better view of it in previous images. Having a fence is essential for this project since we need to remove the material from the CNC in-between carves. The fence allows me to unclamp the stock, stain it, then resecure it to the machine in the exact same location. Having your X and Y zero locations remain constant not only saves you a ton of time during set up, but also allows you to accomplish some pretty interesting techniques. Lets move on to staining.
Using painters tape and lining everything up using the small carves we just made, I start off by adding blue stain along the outside edge of the union. I use Minwax Marine Blue Wood Stain, but whatever you think looks good will be fine. I add a generous amount of stain using a foam brush, wipe it off with a cloth, then use a heat gun to speed up the drying process before removing the tape. It's usually dry to the touch within a few minutes.
Next I tape off the inside edges of the union before applying Minwax Barn Red Stain on the rest of the flag. Make sure to wrap the tape over the edges of the stock so you can stain the edges. I don't normally build frames around my flags, mostly to save money, so having the edges look uniform is important.
With the stain dry, I clamp my flag back on the machine and probe for my Z zero location. Because I'm using pine, and I know the board is slightly cupped, I like to set the Z height directly on wherever I placed the logo. Because the logo requires more detail than the stripes, I'd rather have this be the most accurate section of the flag. This isn't always necessary, but I do think its just good practice.
Using a 1/16" Downcut Bit, I then trace the logo I designed using an Outside Contour Toolpath at .03" depth. I'm going to come back later and carve this path down to .05" depth, but since I 'm adding paint, the .02" difference allows me some room for error. If I end up getting paint in the .03" groove, carving to the deeper depth will erase the mistake.
Using small brushes and black acrylic paint, I color in the interior of the circle and quickly dry the paint with a heat gun. This paint dry's almost instantly when you add a little heat, so I can normally get two coats on within 5ish minutes. Again, do your best not to paint within the carved lines, but don't worry too much if you do. 
Make sure the paint is completely dry before starting your next carve. In the above image, I already ran the .05" Outside Contour Toolpath of the circle to remove any paint mistakes. I then moved on to an Advanced V-Carve Toolpath at .05" depth with the same 1/16" Downcut bit and a 60 Degree V-Bit. I use the soft brush, brass brush, and weeding tool after the carve is complete in order to remove some of the fuzzies. These tools are super helpful and are used in 95% of all of my CNC Projects.
Once the logo is finished, I change tools to a 90 Degree V Bit to carve the stars. Set the depth for this V-Carve to "stock bottom" since we don't want a flat bottom on any of the stars. You could also use a 60 Degree for this, but I prefer the look of the 90. Up to you.
Following the stars, I switch to a 1/4" Downcut bit to pocket out the body of the stripes at .05" depth. You can also see in the middle stripe there that once the stripes are carved, the same 1/4 bit starts pocketing out the dados for the shelves at .4" depth.
The final toolpath uses a 1/8" Downcut bit to reach the corners of the stripes and then finish out our dog bones within the dados that I mentioned earlier. The toolpath I use for this is called "Rest Machining" within my CAD program. All that means is that it only tells the bit to carve the areas where the previous larger bit couldn't reach. This saves a ton of time in the machining process, but could also be accomplished with an inside contour toolpath if your program doesn't have that function; it will just take longer.
Now that the flag is fully carved, I move on to cutting the 1/2" thick shelves. In the first image above, I use a left over cut off from the last time I made these to help me line everything up. The shelves I make are about 1" wide and have a 1/4" groove (<1/4" deep) that runs along the entire length. This is where the coin will sit. I cut these with my regular kerf table saw blade and just tap the fence over to make the groove wider. You could use a dado stack blade if you wanted, but that takes way more set up.
Once the shelves are cut down, I'll insert them into the dados within the flag and mark a line to cut them on my miter saw. After doing some light sanding to the edges and making sure they fit nice and snug, I'll glue them into place using a small amount of CA Glue. You could use wood glue if you wanted, but since these are already a good friction fit, I just think the CA glue is easier to deal with. Personal preference.
With everything assembled and glued up, I'm ready to finish this thing. I like to use High Gloss spray Lacquer because the drying time is so much faster than almost anything else. Just make sure to ventilate and protect yourself properly. This stuff can be nasty.
Hard to tell in the above image, but adding the lacquer darkens up the grain and really makes the black paint in the logo shine. I like to use 800 grit sandpaper in between coats to knock down any imperfections. Having a tac cloth on hand to clean up any microscopic dust is also a good move. Three coats should do it. Let's add some hardware.
I like to screw in some simple D-Hooks to the back of my flag. Their cheap and work perfectly for something this size. Sometimes I'll ad one right in the middle, but I think adding two on the ends gives more stability. You could get fancy with carving Key Holes on the CNC, but that adds more time to the project, and time is money.
With the hardware added, this project is good to go! I didn't have very many Coins on hand to show you how this looks, but you get the point. I think Homefront Strong is gonna love this! On to the next project...
