Making Custom Lapel Pins on a Milling Machine

In this excellent guide on the Adafruit Learning System, Collin Cunningham shows you how to use am Othermill CNC milling machine to create custom, hand painted, resin glazed lapel pins using copper PCB material.

You, of course, need a milling machine to accomplish this and they are currently harder to come by than 3D printers and CNC routers, but check around. Your local makerspace or library might have one.

Basically, you’re using the milling machine to etch out the shape of your vector graphic and then the rest of the process is basic crafting with painting, glazing, and mounting the backing pins. I’ve been chomping at the bit to make some of my own custom lapel pins. Now all I have to do is find an Othermill in my neighborhood…