Marc's Cross

As part of Lakeside Lutheran High School's religion course, all juniors are required to build a cross.  Chris made his cross two years ago. He made it out of Corian, duPont's solid surface countertop material. With a little help from Joe Freson, Chris programmed the CNC router at Marshall Towne Millwork to cut out a cross and engrave some lines and the letters INRI. 

Marc and Dad had the last two years to think up improvements. They decided to copy duPont's backlit idea.  This involves removing varying thicknesses of Corian so that the light can come through in varying intensities. This can be done in such a way as to make a picture. duPont's backlit idea removes the material from the front side but we decided to remove ours from the backside so that when not lit, nothing is visible. See for yourself how it looks.

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Chris's Cross

We used this as the starting point and spent the last two years dreaming up improvements.

Starting the CNC Router

After the Corian is vacuumed down, Marc starts the router running.

Router Running

Behind the window the router is engraving the front side of the Corian. Then the Corian is flipped over and the back side is routed.

Marc releases vacuum.

Marc is releasing the vacuum which held down the Corian during routing.. Look close at the enlarged version and you can see the routing on the back side..

Painting the Front Side

We spray painted black paint onto the front side to fill in the three routed crosses. Then we sanded the entire front removing all of the paint except what was in the grooves.

Assembled Cross

We added sides, a base, lights, and a back. The three painted crosses are the only thing visible when the light is off.

Backlit

With the back light on, the outline of Christ is visible. We routed this outline on the back side of the Corian and the light gets through the thinner material. The light is visible even in normal room light. The room here is darkened for the photograph.

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