Six Completed crosses…all cut in cherry with three different stains. Traditional Cherry, Golden Cashew and Black Cherry.
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My longest milling project so far…A 17" wreath.
Roughing cut: 1/4" endmill 60 ipm/30feedrate dewalt 3 on speed - 2 hours
Detail pass: 1/8" ball nose 100 ipm/30 plunge dewalt 3 on speed - 5.5 hours
Cutout: 1/4" endmill 75 ipm/30 plunge, 7 passes for .75" wood - 4 minutes
The wood is a cheap aspen glued-up panel from Lowes. A bunch of fuzz to clean up still, but the machine worked great with no issues.
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That came out really nice. I am sure your wife will be giving away lots of those!
From the last picture it looks like it did not cut along the inside curves for the bottom two arcs, it that what it was supposed to do?
At almost 8 hours to carve, she won’t be giving any away…lol
That is the scrap board under the wreath…let me swap it out with a better picture.
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I always get excited to see a new post in this thread, love to see what projects are being turned out. I have to say I am envious of your skills Erik, I hope I can get my machine dialed in like yours. Great job!
So, do you paint it colorful like a wreath, or stain it all the same color?
At 8 hours a carve and I’m guessing a dust collection system running, isn’t that a lot of wear and tear on equipment? And do you monitor the whole process in some way? One post somewhere said to never leave the CNC running alone due to fire hazard possibility. Just wondering.,
@NickHomrich - Thank you very much!
@AllenMassey - I am going with paint on this one…Nice and colorful, red berries, green leaves and a dark (not sure what yet) background and gold for the edges…we shall see.
@DavidYerkes - I didn’t have the dust collection running during this cut (not a good idea) so during the roughing and detail passes I was using the shop-vac every 15 or 20 minutes. I spent a lot of the time in the shop, but I did leave it running unsupervised several times (not recommended) had to refill my coffee. As far as wear and tear goes, I bought the machine to make things…so it will work it’s butt off.
I am a big fan of preventive maintenance…22 years in the army will do that to you, so everyday when I finish for the day I vacuum any dust/chips off of the entire machine, I then use the air compressor to get anything I missed with the shop-vac. I check all wheels, nut and bolts and verify the tightness of each and every one. I check all pulley set screws and the belt tension. And the next time I use the machine, I do it all again before I start. I have seen no wear and tear on anything. All the mistakes that have happened during my milling operations have been due to my own errors, this machine is rock solid.
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Agree on the working it’s butt off, just was wondering what you were doing for the whole 8 hours. Agree on the preventive maintenance also, was a volunteer firefighter for over 30 years and in that line of business your life depended on your equipment working.
Also very nice piece.
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I have a nice computer set up in the shop, so had a movie on for a bit, played music…just hung out and relaxed. I was in and out a lot…thinking about setting up a webcam to monitor from inside…I know that is not recommended, but might see how it goes.
A guy on YouTube set up the webcam for his shop and had a separate monitor for it so he could still work on projects. Us guys sure can come up with some expensive hobby’s eh?
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No kidding…fun, but it is not cheap.
Nice, make sure to post a pic of that wreath painted up. Very nice work.
@ErikJenkins - Check out this video, they made a dinosaur model from a 4 ft x 4 ft x 1/2 inch sheet of plywood.
He also has a good idea for how to adjust the slot width to account for material differences without having to modify the drawings in vcarve.
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That is pretty slick with the slots. I do the same thing with the screws, but I never thought to adjust the bit size in the software to adjust the slot size and I really like the calibration cut prior to doing the sheet to make sure it is good. I’ll have to try that on the next Dino I make.
Thanks.
Made a couple candle holders…needs some sanding…had a little chatter with the 1/4" bit…I will figure out something to carve on them, Something for Christmas decorations (these are my test pieces). Apparently 2.8" is the standard size for the smaller pillar candles. So the little one is sized for that with a 3" opening. The larger one has a 4.5" opening.
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Made another candle holder…made this one a bit thicker and added some candy canes.
1/4" endmill roughing at 70 ipm
1/8" ballnose finish at 100ipm
then cutout with 1/4" endmill.
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Design and Make has a few free items for V-Carve:
The Heart and Ribbon: http://designandmake.com/getting-started-guide/
Chef’s Kitchen No.2: http://designandmake.com/chefs-kitchen-no2/
Home for the Holidays N0.4: http://designandmake.com/home-for-the-holidays-no4/
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Thanks Erik. Those will keep me busy.
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