Skip to content
Recently, Streamline Automation quietly crossed a major milestone: 25 years of turning ideas into reality. Founded in 1999, we’ve spent the last two and a half decades engineering, refining, and evolving the powerful tools that help creators bring their visions to life.
To commemorate this incredible journey, we wanted to create something that felt as personal and lasting as the work we’ve done: a custom wood plaque, carved from a beautiful slab of poplar, celebrating our 25-year history. A simple sign, maybe — but one packed with meaning, material integrity, and of course, a little CNC precision.
Why Did We Choose To Make A Plaque?
To us, this wasn’t just another sign done quickly in EPS (although yes, you can do that with the FROGWire™) – It was meant to represent the intricate care, attention to detail, and innovation that’s defined our team since day one. Plaques have always symbolized legacy, and for us, this one needed to feel permanent and something we felt excited to display in our office for years to come!
We sourced our wood from Black Forest Wood Co, a local shop known for beautiful materials and expert milling. The poplar slab we used was laminated and planed, ready for detail. For such a personal project it felt right to explore local – we thank them for providing us with this beautiful piece and we’re thrilled with the outcome.
Using Streamline Automation’s FROG3D® System and Vectric Aspire – Idea To Execution
From layout to toolpathing, Vectric Aspire’s simplicity and flexibility made it easy to experiment and refine our design to a final product we were happy with. We explored a few different looks before landing on the final design. Using layers and groups in Aspire, we could toggle components on and off without fully deleting them — allowing us to try out variations and quickly compare results.
The 3D model library was another major advantage. Every decorative element on the plaque came straight from Aspire’s built-in collection. No need to source external files — there were more options than we needed, and everything integrated perfectly into our layout.
Text was handled just as easily. Using Aspire’s text tools, we could test fonts, spacing, and curvature — including a subtle curve on the anniversary banner to dial in the perfect look with minimal effort.
Tooling Strategy
Since we had a series of toolpaths to run, each one requiring different tooling, our tooling strategy involved doing multiple passes and cutting the design in sections. We started with a larger end mill tool to work down the outside profile of the sign – this allowed us to cut the outer shape and remove most of the bulk material.
We then moved onto a Z-level roughing toolpath. The roughing toolpath allows each layer of the design to be slowly cut away in steps. The primary purpose of this toolpath is to save time when it comes to the final finishing. It also reduces the force on the tool during the finishing pass, as there won’t be as much material to remove.
The next step is to start carving the 3D surfaces – a small end mill tool was used for most of this work in the text areas of the design. Since a round tool cannot be used to cut sharp inside corners, we switched to a 60-degree engraving tool to finish up the text, achieving those crisp, sharp lines we desired.
Our last step was to switch to a sharp V-bit for the final touches.
By controlling the depth of the tool when it approaches the inner corners of text, the V-Carve toolpath provides clean and sharp text work – the final step before we pull the plaque off the machine.
The Finishing Touches
After the machining was completed, we smoothed out the surface with some light sanding – the FROGMill™ did most of the work, so cleanup was minimal.
We then sealed the poplar with a natural wood stain to bring out the texture of the grain without changing the tone too much. We then finished it off with a clear coat for protection and a light polish.
Thank you For 25 Wonderful Years!
On behalf of the entire Streamline Automation team:
To our clients, partners, alumni, friends and family, and anyone who’s been a part of the story we’ve written – thank you for being part of this journey.
Cheers to the next 25!
Want to watch the full project video? Watch it on Instagram HERE, and remember to follow us to see what’s next for the FROG3D® team!
_______________________
Do you have your own milestone coming up? Want to design a lasting legacy piece? We’d love to see what you’re building. Contact us or tag us in your upcoming social media posts, and reach out anytime to talk projects, equipment, software, tools, and techniques – it’s what we do best!
