For this project, I used with a red-painted MDF sign blank I purchased at Dollar Tree. As with every project, I started with xTool's M1 Material Test Pattern. But even the lowest settings burned more than I'd hoped. Light burns on painted MDF usually lighten the surface, and I needed that for the effect I was after. So I ran some more tests on the back of the sample material to find the lightening effect I was after.

The overburned test gave me an idea, though: What if I framed the flag in an engraved field—so the flag was what was left of the top surface? The engraving would frame the flag, and I could put a message below it. I set out to work and created the design file.

Wikipedia's Flag of Canada entry provided the SVG I needed, and I put it through some design gymnastics to come up with the look I wanted. The first time I tried this, I made the same mistake I always make with engraved frames, and I forgot to split the side bars out as separate objects. So what? Because an engraved field with a big gap in the middle still gets engraved as a full-width object, and it takes forever! So after my first misguided run, I replaced the sides of the outer frame with separate objects so they'd engrave more quickly.

I precut the MDF piece with a jigsaw before engraving it because I didn't want charred edges. So setting up the job required careful placement and verification through the framing feature. As always, I slowed the framing speed down as slow as possible. I wanted to ensure I was covering the entire canvas of my MDF piece.

I did not use air assist on this. My initial tests on this material showed that air assist just spread more debris on the canvas, making it harder to clean after engraving. Instead, I just used compressed air and a rag to clean the final product.

I'm very happy with the final result, and our friends seemed to appreciate the gift.

Happy Canada Day!