rhino race medals

Yesterday, I worked on cutting out 50 race medals for Jill's cousin and the organization that she is a part of. This is the second set of these I have cut this summer. Apparently, they had more people sign up than originally expected and needed more. Wish I would have cut more at the time I was making the first batch.

I decided to cut these on the CNC mill first as it just creates a cleaner finished result, instead of laser cutting and burning the edges. Then I sand the fuzzies off of both faces. I made a fixtures to place them in the laser for proper alignment to laser engrave the text and then sanded the faces when the engraving was completed to remove any burnt surfaces. Today, I'll cut the rhino heads and horns that get glued to the top surfaces and then they'll get one for sanding.

This is a fairly simple design and I don't have to do a ton of labor, but it's amazing how long it takes to make several of one thing. I often wonder if the average person (who doesn't make things) understands what goes into making something. It must seem like alchemy if they have no way of visualizing what it takes to create something out of raw material. I always think about the creation of an object anytime I encounter something unfamiliar to me. Just think of all the steps it takes to build a complete car or even a desk lamp. I'm in awe when I think about it.